Guest essay by Viv Forbes Earth is a blue watery planet. 70% of its surface is covered by oceans of salt water, some of which are extremely deep. These oceans contain about 97% of Earth’s water. Another 2% is locked up in snow, ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% of Earth’s surface water…
In the August issue of Physics Today, climate scientists Toby Ault and Scott St. George share a pair of startling research findings. Between roughly 800 and 1500 CE, the American West suffered a succession of decades-long droughts, much longer than anything we’ve endured in modern history. And statistical models suggest that, as the climate warms, such megadroughts…
While there’s no imminent drinking water crisis in the U.S., technology like this can be helpful abroad – Anthony Powered only by solar energy, a new device developed at MIT could provide relief to regions where water is scarce. A device developed by Evelyn Wang, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, harvests clean drinking water…
Guest post by David Middleton MARCH 22, 2017 Record precipitation, snowpack in California expected to increase hydro generation in 2017 For the first time since 2011, California’s drought is significantly weakening—a result of one of the wettest winters on record. California has experienced record levels of precipitation this winter, and unlike last winter, cooler temperatures…
From the “California is in a permanent drought due to climate change – because we said so” department comes this good news from NASA, CA DWR, and NOAA From NASA: Abundant Snowpack Blankets the Sierra Nevada March 3, 2017 Snowpack on the Sierra Nevada provides one-third of the water consumed by California citizens, farmers, and…
From the UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA and the department of “we are in permanent drought in California… oh, wait” comes this claim that is surely little more than another modeling fantasy from Jonathan Overpeck. Colorado River flows will keep shrinking as climate warms Warming in the 21st century reduced Colorado River flows by at least 0.5 million…
By Larry Kummer. Posted at the Fabius Maximus website. Summary: The “permanent drought” in California, like the now ended “permanent drought” in Texas, is ending. But like the panic about Texas, it is rich in lessons about our difficulty clearly seeing the world — and the futility of activists exaggerating and lying about the science.…
Long-time WUWT readers will recognize the title as being a spoof on the infamous line about snow uttered by Dr. David Viner of the University of East Anglia some years ago in the Independent (now deleted, but preserved here) where he claimed in an article Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past by Charles…
From the NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH/UNIVERSITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH comes this twist of the long used “flash flood” term used to describe a weather event. The definition of flash flood is: ” a local flood of short duration generally resulting from heavy rainfall in the immediate vicinity” A more detailed description is at the…
From Cornell University and the CMIP modeling jockeys comes this claim: ITHACA, N.Y. – As a consequence of a warming Earth, the risk of a megadrought – one that lasts more than 35 years – in the American Southwest likely will rise from a low chance over the past thousand years to a 20- to 50-percent…