Long-term Aridity Changes in the Western United States

Overview

Journal Science

Specialty Science

Date 2004 Oct 9

PMID 15472040

Citations 80

Authors

Edward R Cook

Connie A Woodhouse

C Mark Eakin

David M Meko

David W Stahle

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The western United States is experiencing a severe multiyear drought that is unprecedented in some hydroclimatic records. Using gridded drought reconstructions that cover most of the western United States over the past 1200 years, we show that this drought pales in comparison to an earlier period of elevated aridity and epic drought in AD 900 to 1300, an interval broadly consistent with the Medieval Warm Period. If elevated aridity in the western United States is a natural response to climate warming, then any trend toward warmer temperatures in the future could lead to a serious long-term increase in aridity over western North America.

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