On climate change’s impact on New Mexico: Diminishing water supplies as a result of global warming could cost New Mexico’s economy hundreds of millions of dollars a year over the next century, according to a new study. The study, to be unveiled at a news conference this morning in Albuquerque, found that an already arid …
PHDI, North-Central GeorgiaOriginally uploaded by heinemanfleck. I spent some time yesterday looking for better measures than simple precipitation to describe the current drought situation in Northern Georgia. This is from a data set of Palmer Hydrologic Drought Index for north-central Georgia from the National Climatic Data Center. One of the problems with using precipitation alone, …
A list of questions I have about the Atlanta running-out-of-water situation. I pose them here, lazy-blog style, hoping someone out there knows the answer: to what extent does the Atlanta water supply have multi-year storage capabilities – to store extra during wet years for use during dry years what’s the relevant time scale for understanding …
Reader Tim rightly points out that my Georgia rainfall graph is the state as a whole, while the drought is primarily confined to the northern part of the state. Here’s the north-central Georgia climate division. (The northwest and northeast graphs look quite similar.) I think the point is similar. Depending on what time scales you’re …
We’ve got a full-on water war brewing down in Georgia right now, pitting states against one another (Georgia v. Florida), state against the federal government (Georgia v. Army Corps of Engineers) and endangered species against growing cities (Atlanta et al. v. mussels and sturgeon). It’s worth stepping back a moment and considering the underlying definition …
This time it’s not Sherman, it’s the Corps of Engineers, and it has something to do with fish. Via Shaun McKinnon and WaterCrunch, the story of Atlanta’s attempt to get the Corps to reduce its releases from Lake Lanier, which is running dry. That’s a problem, because it’s Atlanta’s primary source of water. The Corp’s …
cattle and water Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Here’s one of the simple but classic ways we manipulate water here in the western United States. It’s called a stock pond. You carve out a little hollow in a drainage, pile up the dirt on the downhill side, and presto, you’ve got a water supply for your …
For my Louisiana readers (reader?), Michael Tobis links to some maps showing areas at risk of sea level rise.
This is one of my favorite views of U.S. climate, providing a quick and easy way to squint and get a feel for what’s going on across the entire continental U.S. It’s the USGS streamflow map, with color showing today’s flow relative to the long term mean for this date. Red’s dry, blue and back …
For the climate warriors in the audience, a quiz. Who said this? Mankind has a record of reacting after a disaster strikes. Dams are built after floods, not before. So far in human history, disasters have not taken place on a global scale. Therefore we don’t really have a tested mechanism for dealing with global …