California just had its worst drought in over 1200 years, as temperatures and risks rise
This photo shows the dried up lake bed of Huntington Lake which at only 30% capacity as California is gripped by its worst drought in over a millennium. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
A new paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters by Griffin & Anchukaitis concludes that the 2012–2014 drought in California was its most intense in at least 1,200 years.
The study used drought reconstructions from tree-ring cores, from the North American Drought Atlas (NADA) and from cores Griffin & Anchukaitis collectedfrom blue oak trees in southern and central California. Blue oak tree ring widths are particularly sensitive to moisture changes.
Griffin states:
"California’s old blue oaks are as close to nature’s rain gauges as we get"
Pencil-like tree-ring cores are collected non-destructively using a Swedish increment borer. May 2014, image by Daniel Griffin.
The drought alone is anticipated to cost California over $2 billion this year. On top of that, heat and drought also create conditions ripe for wildfires; another major problem for California. As expected, California also saw an intense wildfire seasonin 2014, blowing well through its firefighting budget. Now that the state is finally seeing some significant rainfall in December, those wildfires created conditions conducive to flooding and mudslides.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2014/dec/08/california-just-had-its-worst-drought-in-over-1200-years
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