Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
More good news resounded on the drought front in the last quar-
ter of 2008. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) meteorologist
Brad Rippey pointed out that as of October 2008, the United States
was at its lowest coverage of drought since October 2005, thanks to the
large number of tropical storms that hit the mainland United States
in 2008. “I would argue,” adds Rippey, “that 1998 to 2005 was the third
most signifi cant drought we've seen since the beginning of the twen-
tieth century [behind the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and the mid-1950s].
We began to pull out of the really severe drought about 2005, depend-
ing on the location.”
Recovery is relative, though. It may have come too late for
many farmers, communities, and dependent businesses, or not at
all in the nation's heartland. That's not overdramatizing, either.
It's reality.
The end result of climate change is that its macro-level infl u-
ence on agriculture—the big picture—could well be muted, says
Richards. “But locally, the impact on individual farmers may
be catastrophic in the drier areas, and it may be benefi cial in
those that start to get wetter or warmer as a result of changing
climate.”
Global Warming
Americans may simply have to get used to warming temperatures
and learn to live with them.
“Climate models show that the West is one area where global
warming has had an impact on temperatures—not everywhere in
the West, but [in] much of it—and that's expected to continue,”
says meteorologist Douglas Le Comte, a former National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) drought specialist, an
expert on seasonal drought forecasting, and contributing editor
to
Weatherwise Magazine
. “The big issue in the future is if there will
be enough rain and snow in those areas to offset the impact of the
higher temperatures,” he adds.
Other areas across the United States aren't immune from dry-
ing climate conditions, either. More than 1,100 counties—one-
third of all counties in the United States—face higher risks of water
shortages by mid-century as the result of global warming, according
