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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #150 on: April 21, 2016, 05:06:59 PM »
Indian drought 'affecting 330 million people' after two weak monsoons
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About 330 million people are affected by drought in India, the government has said, as the country reels from severe water shortages and desperately poor farmers suffer crop losses.

A senior government lawyer, PS Narasimha, told the supreme court that a quarter of the country’s population, spread across 10 states, had been hit by drought after two consecutive years of weak monsoons.

Narasimha said the government had released funds to affected regions where a crippling shortage of rainfall had forced the rationing of drinking water to some communities.

As summer hits India, reports of families and farmers in remote villages walking long distances to find water after their wells dried up have dominated local media.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/india-drought-affecting-330-million-people-weak-monsoons
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #151 on: May 01, 2016, 06:04:42 PM »
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Barack Obama has declared the severe drought in the Marshall Islands a disaster, opening the way for emergency US funding for the Pacific island nation.

The disaster declaration, which follows a request from Marshallese president Hilda Heine on 1 April, will allow Fema to provide emergency relief to the archipelago, which is suffering one of its worst-ever droughts. Fema is able to provide federal assistance to overseas territories such as the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Marshall Islands, as well as US states.

Heine declared a state of emergency in February after the Marshall Islands, a collection of atolls south-west of Hawaii, received just a quarter of its usual rainfall during the November to February period.

Water is being carefully distributed, with residents in the capital Majuro given an allocation once a week for a four-hour period. “We’re receiving complaints from the public that they’re out of water,” said Majuro mayor Ladie Jack as the emergency declaration was made.
...
Climate change is a looming threat to the Marshall Islands. The low-lying atolls risk being swamped by rising sea levels, which could threaten key infrastructure and ruin drinking water supplies through salt intrusion.

The Marshall Islands were one of the most vocal nations calling for a 1.5C limit to the global temperature increase at the Paris climate talks last year, warning that the nation would be in mortal danger if warming hit 2C above pre-industrial times.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/28/obama-marshall-islands-drought
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Shared Humanity

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #152 on: May 01, 2016, 09:25:09 PM »
My son lived in the Marshall Islands from 2013 to 2015. No matter what we do with regards to human CO2 emissions, the Marshall Islands will be uninhabitable within 50 years.

oren

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #153 on: May 01, 2016, 11:15:51 PM »
My son lived in the Marshall Islands from 2013 to 2015. No matter what we do with regards to human CO2 emissions, the Marshall Islands will be uninhabitable within 50 years.

I was just thinking the same thing, they need to beg for relocation instead of pressing for climate talks.

Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #154 on: May 02, 2016, 01:19:29 PM »
Armed guards at India's dams as drought grips country
Quote
India is officially in the grip of its worst water crisis in years, with the government saying that about 330 million people, or a quarter of the population, are suffering from drought after the last two monsoons failed.

“Water is more precious than gold in this area,” Purshotam Sirohi, who was hired by the local municipality to protect the dam, in Tikamgarh district, told AFP.

“We are protecting the dam round the clock.”

India is officially in the grip of its worst water crisis in years, with the government saying that about 330 million people, or a quarter of the population, are suffering from drought after the last two monsoons failed.

But the security measures cannot stop the drought from ravaging the dam, with officials saying it holds just one month of reserves.

Four reservoirs in Madhya Pradesh have already dried up, leaving more than a million people with inadequate water and forcing authorities to bring in supplies using trucks.

Almost a 100,000 residents in Tikamgarh get piped water for just two hours every fourth day, while municipal authorities have ordered new bore wells to be dug to meet demand.

But it may not be enough, with officials saying the groundwater level has receded more than 100 feet (30 metres) owing to less than half the average annual rainfall in the past few years.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/02/armed-guards-at-indias-dams-as-drought-grips-country
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #155 on: May 07, 2016, 07:54:00 PM »
Zimbabwe’s Extreme Response To Extreme Drought: Sell The Animals
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This week, Zimbabwe put its wildlife up for sale in an effort save the animals from a devastating drought, Reuters reports. The state Parks and Wildlife Management Authority reached out to buyers “with the capacity to acquire and manage wildlife” and enough land to house the beasts. The agency did not specify exactly which animals would be sold, their cost, or whether they could be exported to foreign countries. Large mammals, including elephants, rhinos, and lions, are plentiful in Zimbabwe’s parks.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/05/3775539/zimbabwe-sells-animals-drought/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #156 on: May 07, 2016, 09:45:38 PM »
Western U.S. snowpack melting at record speed
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WASHINGTON, May 6, 2016 – During April, Western snowpack dropped at record speed, according to data from the fifth and final 2016 forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“In the Pacific Northwest, low precipitation and high temperatures led to a dramatic reduction in snowpack,” said NRCS Hydrologist Cara McCarthy. “In this area, peak streamflow is arriving weeks earlier than normal this year.”
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/newsroom/releases/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #157 on: May 13, 2016, 10:21:34 PM »
Colorado Legalizes Rain Barrels
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Until Thursday when Governor John Hickenlooper signed a bill legalizing rain barrels, it was a crime to catch and use rainwater in the state of Colorado. That’s right — the state legalized recreational use of marijuana before a commonplace water conservation tool.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/13/3778360/rain-barrel-scofflaws-legal-now/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #158 on: May 20, 2016, 09:22:30 PM »
Lake Mead declines to lowest level in history
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As the levels of Lake Mead continue to fall, the odds are increasing for the federal government to declare a shortage in 2018, a step that would trigger cutbacks in the amounts flowing from the reservoir to Arizona and Nevada. With that threshold looming, political pressures are building for California, Arizona and Nevada to reach an agreement to share in the cutbacks in order to avert an even more severe shortage.
...
Government records show that the level of Lake Mead hasn’t been this low since 1937, when the reservoir was being filled.

Scientists have estimated that rising temperatures and the resulting declines in runoff across the Colorado River Basin could reduce the river’s flow by between 5 percent and 35 percent by the middle of the century.

“Human-caused climate warming will drive larger and larger flow reductions as long as emissions of greenhouse gases continue,” said Jonathan Overpeck, co-director of the University of Arizona's Institute of the Environment.

“The river is over-allocated even before climate change is factored in,” Overpeck said in an email. He said he thinks the negotiations will probably “focus on how to reduce the over-allocation, but will eventually have to focus on sharing the pain as climate change continues to reduce the flows.”
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2016/05/19/lake-mead-declines-new-record-low/84597120/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #159 on: June 07, 2016, 09:54:15 PM »
Unabated Global Warming Threatens West's Snowpack, Water Supply
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Low-elevation snowpack across the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades will disappear in the coming decades if global warming continues unabated, according to a new study. The changes will cause water shortages in the region and dry out forests and grasslands, the study's authors say.
...
The findings challenge conventional thinking that the amount of winter precipitation is the main predictor of summer water supplies in the West. Instead, warming temperatures will have a bigger impact on how much water is stored as snow, and how fast it will melt and run down into rivers and streams in the water-strapped region.
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/07062016/unabated-global-warming-threatens-west-snowpack-water-rocky-mountains-sierra-nevada-drought
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #160 on: June 18, 2016, 05:51:37 PM »
Quote
Bill McKibben:  Little chart of the water levels at Lake Mead, as we enter this week's western mega-heat
https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/744147236003545092
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Laurent

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #161 on: June 21, 2016, 05:57:13 PM »
http://arachnoid.com/NaturalResources/image.php?mead
Lake Mead is near ration regime I (1075 feet)

jdallen

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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #163 on: July 14, 2016, 01:38:59 AM »
Central U.S.:
Quote
Projected heatwave the next two weeks vaguely similar to June/July 2012 that featured a flash drought in the Plains.
https://twitter.com/stevebowenwx/status/753339651872677888

Link also has 6- to 10-day temperature outlook and 2016 historical rainfall maps.
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Laurent

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #164 on: July 14, 2016, 10:17:55 AM »

Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #165 on: July 17, 2016, 08:03:18 PM »
New York state issues first drought watch in 14 years, urges water conservation
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The National Drought Mitigation Center this week said 11 percent of New York state is in a severe drought, and another 78 percent is either abnormally dry or in a moderate drought.

Meteorologists told Syracuse.com today the drought is likely to last weeks or even months.
http://www.newyorkupstate.com/weather/2016/07/new_york_state_issues_drought_watch_urged_water_conservation.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #166 on: August 01, 2016, 01:51:21 AM »
"Upstate" New York:  Cornell University issues mandatory water restrictions amid severe drought
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Ithaca, N.Y. -- As the severe drought in the Finger Lakes deepens, Cornell University has issued mandatory water use restrictions for all employees and students.

"If current trends continue, there will be insufficient potable (clean, treated) water to supply the demands of campus this August," the university said on its emergency alerts web page. "We must work together as a community to decrease overall water use on campus by at least 30 percent as soon as possible."

The university gets its water from Fall Creek, which is running at about a quarter of its normal late July flow.

The city of Ithaca, facing what it calls a "critically low" water supply, is restricting use and urging residents to do the same. City officials said they could run out of water in 30 days.

"We are experiencing the worst drought in living memory," Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick said on his Facebook page.

March 1 to July 26 has been the driest such period in Ithaca on record, with just half the normal rainfall, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center.
http://www.newyorkupstate.com/weather/2016/07/cornell_university_issues_water_restrictions_amid_severe_drought.html
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sidd

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #167 on: August 01, 2016, 06:11:27 AM »
Some parts of central PA the corn is dead already. Bottomlands still survive, but the farmers have inspectors in walking the bad fields preparing to apply for crop insurance. "Normally," in drought years, they would take the combine in at harvest, and do a test strip to prove the case for crop insurance to kick in. This is the earliest i have seen for them to begin the process for insurance payout.

Increasing debt load might have something to do with it. Some of them could try stave off disaster burning diesel pumping water ... but they are quitting early this year.

God help them and their families, for no one else does.

sidd

Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #168 on: August 05, 2016, 08:20:40 PM »
Israel Proves the Desalination Era Is Here
One of the driest countries on Earth now makes more freshwater than it needs
Quote
We are standing above the new Sorek desalination plant, the largest reverse-osmosis desal facility in the world, and we are staring at Israel’s salvation. Just a few years ago, in the depths of its worst drought in at least 900 years, Israel was running out of water. Now it has a surplus. That remarkable turnaround was accomplished through national campaigns to conserve and reuse Israel’s meager water resources, but the biggest impact came from a new wave of desalination plants.
...
Driven by necessity, Israel is learning to squeeze more out of a drop of water than any country on Earth, and much of that learning is happening at the Zuckerberg Institute, where researchers have pioneered new techniques in drip irrigation, water treatment and desalination. They have developed resilient well systems for African villages and biological digesters than can halve the water usage of most homes.
...
That water stress has been a major factor in the turmoil tearing apart the Middle East, but Bar-Zeev believes that Israel’s solutions can help its parched neighbors, too — and in the process, bring together old enemies in common cause.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is-here/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #169 on: September 27, 2016, 07:16:35 PM »
Northeastern U.S.:
Wayne Castonguay, the executive director of the Ipswich River Watershed Association, says it may take the area a decade or more to recover.

Scenes From New England’s Drought: Dry Wells, Dead Fish and Ailing Farms
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The low river is one of countless signs of dry weather that has settled over much of New England. Conditions are even worse south of the Saco, with the United States Drought Monitor observing “extreme drought” conditions in much of the eastern half of Massachusetts, southeastern New Hampshire and the southern part of Maine.

Some private wells have dried up. Farmers face millions of dollars in lost crops, and federal agricultural officials have declared much of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut a natural disaster area. Parts of rivers have withered into a series of ponds or wide stretches of stone, harming the ecosystems that depend on them. Bears and other wild animals are venturing into human habitats in search of food because there is little in their own.

“We are not used to this in New England,” said Maggie Hassan, the Democratic governor of New Hampshire. Officials in her state and in Massachusetts have issued dire warnings, urging an end to outdoor watering. Many cities and towns have issued restrictions, although not all are mandatory.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/us/scenes-from-new-englands-drought-dry-wells-dead-fish-and-ailing-farms.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #170 on: October 24, 2016, 05:44:17 PM »
Alabama streams, rivers drying up due to extreme drought
Quote
Alabama is experiencing a water crisis but taking shorter showers and not flushing toilets may not be as helpful as one would think.

In some cases where the rivers are still flowing, those flows are not being generated naturally. Reid said the Cahaba River is almost completely dry in Trussville, but the flow increases just downstream of a wastewater treatment plant.

"That water is almost entirely treated wastewater," Reid said. "We don't want people to be scared of the water that's there. The (treatment) systems are there and they're doing their job, but we absolutely can't afford any problems with the wastewater treatment systems.

"We're in an interesting situation where we must conserve water to keep the water flowing, but with the recognition that our wastewater systems are now providing almost all the flow for this river. That water needs to continue."
http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/10/alabama_streams_rivers_drying.html
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wili

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #171 on: October 24, 2016, 05:49:28 PM »
Quote
Alabama streams, rivers drying up due to extreme drought

Any yet, AL is one of the most reliable supporters of climate deniers like Trump.

Proof that events alone are not enough to change minds about CC.
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DrTskoul

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #172 on: October 24, 2016, 08:02:19 PM »

Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #173 on: November 15, 2016, 04:17:12 AM »
U.S.:  input your zip code at the link to get a readout of drought in your area.
Also, links to U.S. drought news and maps.

U.S. Drought Portal
https://www.drought.gov/drought/
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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #174 on: November 21, 2016, 02:57:57 PM »
Quote
Water rationing introduced as Bolivia drought worsens
Water rationing becomes permanent in La Paz as the dams run dry.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/water-rationing-introduced-bolivia-drought-worsens-161120093020654.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #175 on: November 24, 2016, 12:05:41 AM »
31% of the contiguous U.S. is in drought on the latest Drought Monitor.  55% if you include "abnormally dry."

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu
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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #176 on: November 26, 2016, 09:37:00 PM »
More on the Bolivia drought.  The glacier which once hosted the world’s highest ski resort has completely disappeared.

Bolivian water crisis as glaciers vanish
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/bolivian-water-crisis-glaciers-vanish/
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DrTskoul

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #177 on: March 08, 2017, 11:32:07 PM »
'Parched' Chinese city plans to pump water from Russian lake via 1,000km pipeline

Quote
China is reportedly considering plans to build a 1,000km (620 mile) pipeline to pump water all the way from Siberia to its drought-stricken northwest.

According to reports in the Chinese media, urban planners in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, have drawn up proposals to pipe water into the chronically parched region from Russia’s Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake on earth.

Li Luoli, an academic who is one of the plan’s cheerleaders, claimed the mega-project - roughly the equivalent of pumping water from Lake Como to London - was both theoretically feasible and “certainly beneficial” to China.

“Once the technical issues are resolved, diplomats should sit down and talk to each other about how each party would benefit from such international cooperation,” said Li, the vice president of the China Society of Economic Reform, a state-run think tank.

Great. Let's drain Baikal like Aral.

oren

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #178 on: March 08, 2017, 11:59:47 PM »
Great. Let's drain Baikal like Aral.
Actually Aral is an inland sea and therefore easier to drain than Baikal, which is a pass-through lake. Therefore the main initial effect will be to lessen the outflow of the lake into the Angara river, and therefore less of a problem. Not saying this is a good plan, just that the consequences are somewhat different.

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #179 on: March 09, 2017, 12:08:19 AM »
‘Baikal seriously ill’: World’s deepest lake suffers alien algae, record water-level drop

Quote
But the alien algae aren't the only threat Baikalis facing at the moment. Its water level is at a record low – 5cm below the critical level of 456 meters, according to a source in the local emergency services who spoke to RIA Novosti. The level hit critical just three weeks ago.

This has led to the Republic of Buryatia, whose territory includes Baikal's eastern shore, declaring a state of ecologic emergency. The officials have also asked the local population to start saving water.

They say the draining could cause irreversible damage to the lake's unique ecosystem and leave almost 30,000 locals without water. Some local ecologists blame energy companies for over-using Baikal's water reserves.

It does not take much to push ecosystems off equilibrium.

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #180 on: March 09, 2017, 04:02:34 PM »
Keep in mind, however, that Lake Baikal is the third largest storage of freshwater on Earth, after Antarctica and the Greenland ice sheet. Baikal's maximum depth is around 1.6km, whereas the Aral Sea's maximum depth was just barely over 100 meters, which is now the small remaining lake in its west.

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #181 on: March 09, 2017, 04:42:11 PM »
‘Baikal seriously ill’: World’s deepest lake suffers alien algae, record water-level drop

Quote
But the alien algae aren't the only threat Baikalis facing at the moment. Its water level is at a record low – 5cm below the critical level of 456 meters, according to a source in the local emergency services who spoke to RIA Novosti. The level hit critical just three weeks ago.

This has led to the Republic of Buryatia, whose territory includes Baikal's eastern shore, declaring a state of ecologic emergency. The officials have also asked the local population to start saving water.

They say the draining could cause irreversible damage to the lake's unique ecosystem and leave almost 30,000 locals without water. Some local ecologists blame energy companies for over-using Baikal's water reserves.

It does not take much to push ecosystems off equilibrium.

Trouble is that bodies of water can take vast amounts of abuse with little effect UP TO A POINT. After that point collapse can occur almost instantly. The classic cases are of runoff of nitrates and phosphates from farmland. In Lake Baikal if energy companies are extracting water it is likely they are sending warm wastewater back in large quanities. Warmth + agric chemicals = disastrous oxygen loss = body of water goes eutrophic = no oxygen breathing life.
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oren

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #182 on: March 09, 2017, 05:46:07 PM »
Amazing. So now the local population near Lake Baikal, the largest reservoir of unfrozen freshwater on the planet, need to start saving water due to environmental damage. Mad world.

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #183 on: March 10, 2017, 11:38:55 PM »
Water scarcity needs “urgent and massive response” in North Africa and Near East – Accessible fresh water in has fallen by two-thirds in the past 40 years

Quote
CAIRO, 9 March 2017 (FAO) – Access to water is a fundamental need for food security, human health and agriculture, and its looming scarcity in the North Africa and Middle East region is a huge challenge requiring an "urgent and massive response," FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said in Cairo.

Accessible fresh water in the region has fallen by two-thirds in the past 40 years. It now amounts to 10 times less per capita availability than the worldwide average, underscoring the need for a significant overhaul of farming systems, he added.

A recent study by FAO showed that higher temperatures may shorten growing seasons in the region by 18 days  and reduce agricultural yields a further 27 percent to 55 percent less by the end of this century. The rising sea level in the Nile Delta is exposing Egypt to the danger of losing substantial parts of the most productive agriculture land due to salinization.

Moreover, "competition between water-usage sectors will only intensify in the future between agriculture, energy, industrial production and household needs," he said.

Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #184 on: March 11, 2017, 02:15:30 PM »
Eric Holthaus:  We are all members of the same human family. Reach out to your brothers and sisters in urgent need.

How to help:
https://www.unicefusa.org/mission/emergencies/food-crises

https://mobile.twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/840330497934876672
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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #185 on: March 22, 2017, 05:50:58 AM »

sidd

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #186 on: July 01, 2017, 08:56:55 PM »
Drought in Montana,Dakotas.

http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/news/north-dakota/4289220-burgum-proclaims-statewide-fire-and-drought-emergency

I just went thru there east to west and back. They are sucking from the Ogallala and spraying water like it was free. The water level in the wells is sinking fast.. Once i got into th Platte watershed in Nebraska, there was a lot of irrigation too, but i think they are sucking from the Platte rather than deeper. Not till lincoln, NE did i see reduction in sprinklers.

Very dry in the Badlands, even more than usual. The First Peoples confined there dont irrigate, mebbe too poor. I talked to a few of the Lakota, they run a few thousand head, but that seems to be it. All the larger farms interspersed there with Native lands are owned by white folk.

sidd

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #187 on: July 18, 2017, 03:45:40 PM »
Heartbreaking read on a familiar issue here that gets little attention in the public arena.  As this and future similar impacts accelerate in Africa, India, and elsewhere, it would be reasonable to think this could blunt some of the expected population increases forecasted by 2050.

Climate change threatens an ancient way of life in Ethiopia

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/africa/climate-change-threatens-an-ancient-way-of-life-in-ethiopia/2017/07/16/c2726a4e-658c-11e7-94ab-5b1f0ff459df_story.html

NARDO CAMP, Ethiopia — Zeinab Taher once roamed through Ethiopia’s arid Somali region tending a vast herd of 350 sheep, goats and cattle with her nine children.

Then the autumn rains failed and the grass that fed her animals didn’t grow. No rain came this spring, either, and then the livestock began to die. Now, wrapped in her orange shawl, the 60-year-old huddles in a makeshift windblown camp along with several thousand others, depending on food and water from international agencies.

Another drought has seized the Horn of Africa, devastating the livestock herders in these already dry lands. Even as the government and aid agencies struggle to help them, there is a growing realization that with climate change, certain ways of life in certain parts of the world are becoming much more difficult to sustain.
----
It was just last year that a drought caused by the El Niño warming phenomenon in the Pacific baked Ethiopia’s fertile highlands in the north and center of the country and left more than 10 million people needing food aid. This year, temperature changes in the Indian Ocean have caused a drought in the south and east of the country, a much more arid region populated by shepherds and their flocks.
---
It certainly isn’t shaping up to be an easy year for Ethiopia, however, with the latest humanitarian assessment indicating 7.8 million people need food aid at a cost of nearly $1 billion. The Somali region was also battered by severe droughts in 2008 and 2011. With aid less certain, there is more urgency to work on long-term efforts to address the country’s needs

Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #188 on: July 25, 2017, 03:58:35 AM »
Romans threatened with water rationing as Italy's heatwave drags on
Quote
More than a million residents of Rome are facing water rationing for up to eight hours a day as the prolonged heatwave that has ravaged southern Europe takes its toll on the Italian capital.

Some businesses are already reporting sporadic disruption to their supply, while last month mayor Virginia Raggi turned off thousands of the city’s public drinking fountains in an effort to save water as the drought set in.

Officials from the Italian utility Acea, the Lazio region that contains Rome, and the environment ministry will meet this week to discuss the possibility of rationing the water supply to about half of the city’s 3 million residents. ...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/24/rome-water-rationing-italy-heatwave
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jai mitchell

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #189 on: August 03, 2017, 08:41:03 PM »
This is what happens when we see a large push in the Hadley Cell northward, expanding heat domes and drought in previously unseen scales and shorter timelines.

The term "flash drought" is now something that we all need to become aware of and use in our lexicon of climate discourse. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/07/06/extreme-heat-broils-the-dakotas-and-montana-flash-drought-takes-toll-on-wheat-crop/

In early May, the U.S. Drought Monitor classified neither the Dakotas nor Montana in a drought. Eight weeks later, drought covered 47 percent of North Dakota, 34 percent of South Dakota, and much of the eastern third of Montana — and its intensity is severe to extreme in many areas.
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Daniel B.

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #190 on: August 04, 2017, 04:47:32 PM »
This is what happens when we see a large push in the Hadley Cell northward, expanding heat domes and drought in previously unseen scales and shorter timelines.

The term "flash drought" is now something that we all need to become aware of and use in our lexicon of climate discourse. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/07/06/extreme-heat-broils-the-dakotas-and-montana-flash-drought-takes-toll-on-wheat-crop/

In early May, the U.S. Drought Monitor classified neither the Dakotas nor Montana in a drought. Eight weeks later, drought covered 47 percent of North Dakota, 34 percent of South Dakota, and much of the eastern third of Montana — and its intensity is severe to extreme in many areas.

Yes, the drought appeared quickly.  However, the U.S. is currently experiencing some of the lowest drought extent in history.  Certainly since the turn of the century.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-content/sotc/drought/2017/06/usdm-pctarea-20000104-20170627-conus.png

jai mitchell

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #191 on: November 11, 2017, 03:01:06 PM »
https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/community/2017/05/24/study-western-u-s-snowpack-could-deacline-60-percent-by-2040

Study: Western U.S. Snowpack Could Decline 60 Percent by 2040

The lead author of the new study says a 30 percent decline in mountain snowpack is “very likely” and greater losses are possible. The report points the finger at human-induced changes in the climate.

Quote
It was a set of simulations that took several years to complete. And it’s that new set of simulations that allowed us to make what is the most notable statement in this paper, and that is that we’re predicting up to a 60 percent decline in snowpack over the Western U.S. That’s a combination of 30 percent from human impact, and possibly an additional 30 percent decline due to this natural variability. That’s the key result. It is a big number. It’s frightening.
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jai mitchell

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #192 on: November 11, 2017, 03:22:51 PM »
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa8fde/meta

Abstract
Washington State experienced widespread drought in 2015 and the largest burned area in the observational record, attributable in part to exceptionally low winter snow accumulation and high summer temperatures. We examine 2015 drought severity in the Cascade and Olympic mountains relative to the historical climatology (1950–present) and future climate projections (mid-21st century) for a mid-range global greenhouse gas emissions scenario. Although winter precipitation was near normal, the regional winter temperature anomaly was +2.1 °C (+2.0σ) in 2015, consistent with projections of a +2.3 °C (+2.2σ) temperature change and near normal precipitation in the future, relative to the climatology. April 1 snow water equivalent in 2015, −325 mm (−1.5σ), and the future, −252 mm (−1.1σ), were substantially lower than the climatology. Wildfire potential, as indicated by dead fuel moisture content, was higher in 2015 than mid-21st century mean projections. In contrast to most historical droughts, which have been driven by precipitation deficits, our results suggest that 2015 is a useful analog of typical conditions in the Pacific Northwest by the mid-21st century.

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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #193 on: December 01, 2017, 12:03:44 AM »
La Niña means drought is now expanding in Texas, even though we're just three months after Hurricane Harvey's record-setting rainfall.
Yes, this will be Houston's rainiest year in history. Yes, they'll probably end the year in a drought.
https://twitter.com/ericholthaus/status/936335040090443783
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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #194 on: December 01, 2017, 04:24:01 AM »
Amazing!

Meanwhile:

Sahara ‘moving north’
BY CARRIE-MARIE BRATLEY, IN NEWS · 23-11-2017 14:04:00 ·
A leading national expert on climate change has warned that the Iberian Peninsula might soon be facing spells of droughts that could span up to eight years, as Portugal’s climate becomes increasingly like the arid climes of Northern Africa.

http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/sahara-moving-north/43959

thnx to COBob at scribblers for this

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #195 on: December 01, 2017, 08:50:40 AM »
Quote
the U.S. is currently experiencing some of the lowest drought extent in history.
Hello? It hasn't rained here since August 3rd. The joke around here is Nov 26th was the last day of summer. It was 20ºF over 1990-2010 baseline. Terrible thing to see the cactus dying.

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #196 on: December 01, 2017, 10:49:37 PM »
Current ‘Drought Monitor’ map and statistics (continental U.S.).

More at:  http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx
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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #197 on: December 16, 2017, 04:50:03 PM »
 You know you're in trouble when the cactus start dying.

Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #198 on: December 18, 2017, 09:41:04 PM »
Western U.S.:

This is a scary snapshot of our current snowpack across the West.  Lets hope for a shift to this pressure system soon. #snowdrought
     https://twitter.com/NV_Mtn_Ecohydro/status/942790376674304000
Image below.

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Sigmetnow

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Re: General Drought Stuff
« Reply #199 on: December 22, 2017, 07:30:21 PM »
“The odds of widespread U.S. drought are going up as we head into 2018, thanks in part to the presence of a second consecutive winter of La Niña conditions. New research suggests that the second year of a multi-year La Niña event might, on average, bring more widespread U.S. drought than the first.”

U.S. Drought Risk Rising as a Second La Niña Winter Kicks In
Quote
...the fraction of the U.S. covered by drought conditions (categories D1 to D4) doubled in just a month—from 13% on November 14 to 26% on December 19. A much larger chunk of the nation, 56%, was either abnormally dry or already in drought, up from 35% in early November. The last time that index hit 60% was in October 2013.

Other signs of drought trying to set in:

•  The water year in Southern California (Oct. 1 –Sep. 30) is off to one of its driest starts in more than a century of recordkeeping. From October 1 through December 21, downtown Los Angeles received just 0.12” of rain and San Diego a mere 0.09”. In both cities, just three other years have been drier. Precipitation has also been scant in Northern California this month, although San Francisco’s 3.40” for the water year to date is only its 32nd driest in records back to 1849-50. Even so, “the odds of an above-normal rainfall season are slim,” tweeted Jan Null (Golden Gate Weather Services).

•  A huge swath of the U.S. from California to New York received less than half of its average precipitation in the 30-day period ending on Thursday.

•  Some parts of the Midwest have yet to see their first measurable snow of the season. Waterloo, Iowa, got its first snow on Wednesday, Dec. 20, which tied a record-late first-snow record set in 2004. Des Moines got 0.1” of snow on Thursday, Dec. 21, the latest first snow in any year except for 1939 (Dec. 26). ...
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/us-drought-risk-rising-second-la-nia-winter-kicks
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