There's a Big Thirsty Drought Barreling Down On the United States
All signs point to us being at the beginning stage of another prolonged drought
Here we go again! If you lived in the western half of the United States during the mid 20-teens, you’ll likely remember the last big drought we suffered through, especially if you were in California (the hardest hit region). Well, hopefully you didn’t get used to a post-drought world because we’re back in it!
Of course, you might be thinking: “Who cares? I turn my faucet on and water comes out. No big deal.” And in some ways you’re right. A drought, even extreme or exceptional ones don’t really impact our day to day lives all that much. In this way, droughts mirror the impacts of climate change. We don’t necessarily feel the pain of a drought immediately, and therefore we don’t really worry about it all that much. But that’s not to say we won’t ever feel the pain. To illustrate this let’s go back in time to Cape Town, South Africa, January 2018.
Back in 2018, which admittedly feels like an eternity ago because of everything else that’s happened since then, Cape Town was mired in the midst of a drought that has rarely impacted a modern city before. With their water literally running out - they had a countdown clock and everything - residents were forced to take extreme measures towards water conservation. This included forgoing showers, washing clothes and dishes, and other things we don’t really think twice about under normal circumstances. At the time, the local government set a daily allowance of just over 13 gallons of water per person (50 liters). That might sound like enough water, but it’s actually only about a four-minute shower. Was your shower today less than four minutes? Probably not.
California was hit by water conservation measures back in the mid 20-teens as well. Though less extreme, restaurants stopped serving water unless asked and politicians and celebrities were all chiming in on how best to get water to a very thirsty state. One such idea was floated to build a water pipeline from the Columbia River in Oregon/Washington down to California. Logistics aside, it’s a terrible idea because Oregon and Washington have their own droughts to worry about.
So suffice it to say, droughts are a big problem and while they’re cyclical, we appear to be at the beginning stages of yet another big one.
Today’s drought
At the end of 2017/2018, the 20-teens drought was, miraculously, starting to disappear. As you can see in 2019, while there are some areas that are classified as “abnormally dry” and “moderate drought”, overall the US is not all that burdened by water concerns. Interestingly enough, the Pacific Northwest, an area famously known for its water and rainy days, was actually foreshadowing what was to come for the rest of the western United States.
Now let’s jump ahead to May 2020, the year of the coronavirus.
You can see how quickly the drought spread in just one short year. It didn’t get much attention at the time - we all had other things to worry about after all - but now most of Washington, almost all of Oregon, and a large chunk of California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado are showing signs of drought. Colorado, which is home to the great Colorado River, is of particular worry because that very same river provides water to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Diego. A Colorado drought could well impact snowpack, which will impact streams and river tributaries, which will then impact groundwater, all of which likely contribute to the Colorado River (this is an assumption, ask your local hydrologist for more specific details regarding the Colorado River).
And finally, let’s check today’s conditions, May 2021.
From bad to worse. Basically the entire western half of the US is in some form of drought and we now see the dreaded dark red color: exceptional drought. This is scary-dry territory and now we must think about what we do with our current water reserves. Just this past month, federal regulators had to shut off water to farmers in northern California and southern Oregon, something that they have never done before. California has also declared a drought emergency for a number of its counties, which further opens up regulatory authorities to manage water use more aggressively.
Thankfully, some places are more resilient than others. Where I live, Portland, OR, we are currently in a drought. This spring has been the driest on record at the time of this writing. What is normally a season field with grey and rainy days, has been mid 70s and sunny for prolonged weeks. If I didn’t know any better I’d think I was actually living in San Diego. But while Portland is in a drought, we don’t live in a desert or a dry-arid climate like Phoenix or Los Angeles. This helps insulate Pacific Northwest cities, particularly those west of the Cascade Mountain Range, from some of the more immediate effects of a drought, but that won’t last forever.
And because I’m from Oregon, I also created a version of the current drought conditions for my home state.
Yikes!
The Mega Drought
I don’t necessarily want to dive too deep into this, but it’s worth mentioning that there’s a reputable study from 2020 that suggests we may very well be in the beginning stages of a “mega drought” that started in the early 2000s. There’s not much information out on this yet, but it’s thought that human-made climate change could be making the mega drought even worse. And, of course, when droughts get worse, wildfires get worse. While I won’t get into them too much here, wildfires will be a topic of another article later this summer.
So… feeling thirsty?
If all of this has you concerned about our future viability as a water-based species, relax! Droughts have been around for as long as water has been around, which is to say longer than you, me or any other human that has ever lived. Nature works in weird ways and droughts do eventually go away. And as quickly as they spread, they can equally resolve themselves after a year or two of precipitation. In 2017, for example, much of the western US was under drought conditions, but by May 2019, much of that receded. That’s not to say the same pattern will emerge in a couple years once again, but it will hopefully help you to realize that we aren’t always in a constant state of drought. Which might seem to be the case if you only follow headlines.
So to sum it all up, right now, unless you’re a farmer in a particularly hard-hit area, you don’t have too much to worry about. Go pour yourself a nice tall glass of water and enjoy it. There’s nothing healthier than drinking water after all.