By David L. Hoover  and  William K. Smith , Science.  Excerpt: Droughts have major societal and ecological impacts, including drinking water shortages, crop failures, tree mortality, wildfires, and reduced ecosystem productivity ( 1 ). Shifts in the hydrological cycle and continued warming with climate change are leading to rapidly evolving droughts that are more intense and longer lasting ( 2 ). Extreme but short-term droughts (<1 year) can have a wide range of consequences, depending on the severity and timing of the drought as well as an ecosystem’s resistance ( 3 ,  4 ). However, as a drought extends to a multiyear event, these ecological effects can amplify because short-lived buffering from physiological adaptations or water storage may weaken, leading to longer-lasting results ( 4 ). On page 278 of this issue, Chen  et al . ( 5 ) report that increasing precipitation anomalies and atmospheric moisture demands are leading to multiyear droughts ...

By Lela Nargi , The Guardian.  Excerpt: ...In February, the [Rio Grande Valley  Sugar  Growers] cooperative announced that it would close its 50-year-old sugarcane processing mill, the last remaining in the state, by the end of this spring. ... Ongoing megadrought  meant there wasn’t enough water to irrigate co-op members’ 34,000 acres of sugarcane, and that effectively puts an end to sugarcane farming in the south Texas borderlands. ...In 2022,  drought decimated  Texas cotton and forced California growers to  idle half their rice fields . Water disputes are also on the rise as decreased flows in the  Colorado River  and other vital waterways  pit state against state ,  states against native nations  and  farmers against municipalities ....  Full article at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/30/texas-sugarcane-farming . 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/10/climate/arizona-desalination-water-climate.html By  Christopher Flavelle , The New york Times.  Excerpt: ...As the state’s two major sources of water, groundwater and the Colorado River, dwindle from drought, climate change and overuse, officials are considering a hydrological Hail Mary: the construction of a plant in Mexico to suck salt out of seawater, then pipe that water hundreds of miles, much of it uphill, to Phoenix. The idea of building a desalination plant in Mexico has been discussed in Arizona for years. But now, a $5 billion project proposed by an Israeli company is under serious consideration, an indication of how worries about water shortages are rattling policymakers in Arizona and across the American West. On June 1, the state announced that the Phoenix area, the fastest-growing region in the country,  doesn’t have enough groundwater  to support all the future housing that has already been approved.... 

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/short-lived-solutions-for-tall-trees-in-chiles-megadrought By Rebecca Dzombak , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Some southern beeches in the Andes have plumbed deeper for moisture as the surface has dried up. But doing so may deplete resources and undermine the trees’ future health. For more than a decade, forests across much of Chile have been experiencing a  megadrought , its effects overprinted on an already warming and drying climate. ...Sourcing deeper water might be only a temporary fix, however. As droughts become longer, more frequent, and more severe, those reserves may run dry. In addition, trees relying on deeper water may receive fewer nutrients,  stymieing their development  even if they are getting enough water. So although some trees have successfully adapted to drought in the short term, it’s unclear how long they’ll be able to continue. ( Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences ,  https://doi.org/10.1029/2022...

https://eos.org/articles/climate-change-megafires-crush-forest-regeneration By Nancy Averett , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: High-intensity fires in western states kill mature trees and their seeds while warmer, drier conditions stress seedlings. But forest managers can still intervene to change this trajectory. ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/17/colorado-river-grand-canyon-climate-crisis-endangered By Nina Lakhani . The Guardian.  Excerpt: A 277-mile stretch of the  Colorado  River that snakes through the iconic Grand Canyon is America’s most endangered waterway, a new report has found. The unique ecosystem and cultural heritage of the Grand Canyon is on the brink of collapse due to prolonged drought, rising temperatures and outdated river management, according to American Rivers, the conservation group that compiles  the annual endangered list. ...The 2023 list includes rivers that traverse 17 states and scores of sovereign tribal nations, and supply drinking water, food, recreation and spiritual nourishment to millions of people. The waterways are under threat from mining, the climate breakdown, dams, industrial pollution and outdated river management practices that for too long have rebuffed traditional knowledge and sustainable techniques tried and tested ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/business/water-development-west.html By  Keith Schneider , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...The development, Teravalis, is expected to have 100,000 homes and 55 million square feet of commercial space. But to make it happen, the project’s developer, the Howard Hughes Corporation, will need to gain access to enough water for its projected 300,000 residents and 450,000 workers. Teravalis is seen by local and state leaders as a crowning achievement in a booming real estate market, but it also represents the intensifying challenge in Arizona and other fast-growing Southwestern states: to build huge mixed-use projects in an era of water scarcity. ...Persistent dry conditions are driving up the cost of water and prompting more resistance to new development. But the scarcity of water is also pushing developers to innovate with design and install expensive infrastructure to save fresh water and recycle more wastewater. ...In Arizona, groundwater leve...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/02/satellite-images-reveal-shrinkage-of-utahs-great-salt-lake By  Sadia Nowshin , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Striking new images show lake has lost nearly half of its surface area from the historical average. ...The disappearance of the lake has been attributed to drought caused by climate breakdown and water use, along with the redirection of water from streams used to replenish the lake for use in residential spaces and agriculture. The demand for the lake’s water has increased as the population of Utah climbs. Currently home to about 3.3 million people, it is projected that the population will  increase by 66% by 2060 , making it the fastest growing state in the US.… [Note: this article has a great interactive graphic comparing the Great Salt Lake in 1985 and 2022.] 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/climate/colorado-river-water-cuts.html By  Henry Fountain s, The New York Times.  Excerpt: States in the Colorado River basin are scrambling to propose steep cuts in the water they’ll use from the river next year, in response to a call by the federal government for immediate, drastic efforts to keep the river’s main storage reservoirs from reaching critically low levels. The request comes with the Southwest still in the grip of a severe two-decade drought that shows no signs of letting up. And it comes on top of earlier, less desperate, efforts to keep more water in the two reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, including  a first-ever shortage declaration  last year that cut water to farmers in Arizona. ...the long-term outlook for the Colorado is bleak, as climate change continues to affect runoff into the river and reduces the likelihood of a series of wet years that could end the drought. The request for cuts has further exposed...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/01/chiles-water-crisis-megadrought-reaching-breaking-point By John Bartlett, The Guardian.  Excerpt: Unprecedented drought makes water a national security issue as more than half of Chile’s 19 million population lived in area with ‘severe water scarcity’ by end of 2021. From the Atacama Desert to Patagonia, a 13-year megadrought is straining Chile’s freshwater resources to breaking point.By the end  of 2021, the fourth driest year on record, more than half of Chile’s 19 million population lived in an area suffering from “severe water scarcity”, and in April an unprecedented water rationing plan was announced for the capital, Santiago. In hundreds of rural communities in the centre and north of the country, Chileans are forced to rely on emergency tankers to deliver drinking water. ...Many called for a rewrite of Chile’s 1981 water code, a relic of Gen Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990) which enshrines one of the most privati...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/01/chiles-water-crisis-megadrought-reaching-breaking-point By John Bartlett, The Guardian.  Excerpt: Unprecedented drought makes water a national security issue as more than half of Chile’s 19 million population lived in area with ‘severe water scarcity’ by end of 2021. From the Atacama Desert to Patagonia, a 13-year megadrought is straining Chile’s freshwater resources to breaking point.By the end  of 2021, the fourth driest year on record, more than half of Chile’s 19 million population lived in an area suffering from “severe water scarcity”, and in April an unprecedented water rationing plan was announced for the capital, Santiago. In hundreds of rural communities in the centre and north of the country, Chileans are forced to rely on emergency tankers to deliver drinking water. ...Many called for a rewrite of Chile’s 1981 water code, a relic of Gen Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990) which enshrines one of the most privati...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/colorado-river-crisis/ By Karin Brulliard , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: ...the Colorado’s water was overpromised when it was first allocated a century ago. Demand in the fast-growing Southwest exceeds supply, and it is growing even as supply drops amid a climate change-driven megadrought and rising temperatures. ...As temperatures rise, the mountain snowpack that feeds the Colorado river is diminishing over time and melting earlier. That decreasing runoff is more quickly soaking into Western Colorado’s parched terrain and evaporating into its hotter air. Less water is flowing downriver, depriving the ranchers, rafters, anglers and animals who depend on it.…

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01290-z By A. Park Williams ,  Benjamin I. Cook  &  Jason E. Smerdon , Nature Climate Change.  Abstract: A previous reconstruction back to 800 CE indicated that the 2000–2018 soil moisture deficit in southwestern North America was exceeded during one megadrought in the late-1500s. Here, we show that after exceptional drought severity in 2021, ~19% of which is attributable to anthropogenic climate trends, 2000–2021 was the driest 22-yr period since at least 800. This drought will very likely persist through 2022, matching the duration of the late-1500s megadrought.… See also New York Times article How Bad Is the Western Drought? Worst in 12 Centuries, Study Finds .

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/08/09/latest-ipcc-report-points-to-urgent-need-to-cut-emissions/ Source: By  Julie Chao , Berkeley Lab News Center.  Excerpt: Our planet’s oceans, forests, and soils perform a valuable service, absorbing half of our carbon dioxide emissions. But the more that our planet warms, the more that these so-called “carbon sinks” weaken in their ability to perform this service. If we continue on our current trajectory of high emissions of greenhouse gases, by the next century not only will oceans and forests absorb less carbon dioxide, they could even reverse their role and become carbon sources. This is one of the key messages from Working Group I of the  Sixth Assessment Report  of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released today. ...Reports from Working Groups II and III, which focus on adaptation and mitigation, respectively, will be out next spring. ...Another potent short-lived climate forcer is hydrofluorocarbons, or ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/us/acequias-drought-new-mexico-southwest.html Source: By  Simon Romero , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Acequias, the fabled irrigation ditches that are a cornerstone of New Mexican culture, have endured centuries of challenges. Can they survive the Southwest’s megadrought? ...Making subsistence farming feasible in arid lands, New Mexico’s communally managed acequias persisted through  uprisings ,  epidemics  and wars of  territorial conquest , preserving a form of small-scale democratic governance that took root before the United States existed as a country. But in a sign of how climate change has begun to upend farming traditions across the Southwest, the  megadrought  afflicting New Mexico and neighboring states may amount to the acequias’ biggest challenge yet.... 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/07/09/western-reservoirs-drought-california-nevada/ Source: By Diana Leonard,  Laris Karklis , and  Zach Levitt , The Washington Post  Overview: Over the last 20 years, human-caused warming has intensified what would have been an ordinary dry period in the Southwest into a potential “megadrought” — in some ways the driest such period in 1,200 years....  See also  Crushing heat wave in Pacific Northwest and Canada cooked shellfish alive by the millions .

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/climate/california-drought-farming.html Source: By  Somini Sengupta , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ORDBEND, Calif. — In America’s fruit and nut basket, water is now the most precious crop of all. It explains why, amid a historic drought parching much of the American West, a grower of premium sushi rice has concluded that it makes better business sense to sell the water he would have used to grow rice than to actually grow rice. Or why a melon farmer has left a third of his fields fallow. Or why a large landholder farther south is thinking of planting a solar array on his fields rather than the thirsty almonds that delivered steady profit for years. ...These are among the signs of a huge transformation up and down California’s Central Valley, the country’s most lucrative agricultural belt, as it confronts both an exceptional  drought  and the consequences of years of pumping far too much water out of its aquifers. Across the state, ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/06/17/heat-wave-southwest-fires-drought/ ] Source: ByJason Samenow and Diana Leonard, The Washington Post.  Excerpt: One of the most extreme heat waves ever observed in the western United States this early in the season is near its climax. The punishing blast of heat, which began Sunday, has set hundreds of records while simultaneously worsening a historically severe drought, intensifying fires and degrading air quality. About 40 million Americans have endured triple-digit heat and more than 50 million have been under excessive-heat warnings this week. ...While it’s just mid-June and the hottest time of the year is historically still weeks away, temperatures have matched their highest ever observed levels in parts of Utah, Wyoming and Montana. Salt Lake City; Sheridan and  Laramie, Wyo. ; and  Billings, Mont .; all made history Tuesday, soaring to 107, 107, 94 and 108 degrees, respectively. ...On Wednesday, the mercury in Las Ve...

https://www.nytimes.com/article/drought-california-western-united-states.html Source: By  Henry Fountain , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Answers to questions about the current situation in California and the Western half of the United States.... 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/us/klamath-oregon-water-drought-bundy.html   Source: By  Mike Baker , The New York Times.  Excerpt: KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Through the marshlands along the Oregon-California border, the federal government a century ago carved a whole new landscape, draining lakes and channeling rivers to build a farming economy that now supplies alfalfa for dairy cows and potatoes for Frito-Lay chips. The drawdowns needed to cover the croplands and the impacts on local fish nearing extinction have long been a point of conflict at the Klamath Project, but this year’s historic drought has heightened the stakes, with salmon dying en masse and Oregon’s largest lake draining below critical thresholds for managing fish survival. Hoping to limit the carnage, federal officials have shut the gates that feed the project’s sprawling irrigation system, telling farmers the water that has flowed every year since 1907 will not be available. Some farmers, furious about w...