As a resident of California for three decades, I know droughts and dry conditions are nothing new to the state. The one I remember the most is the drought of 1976. Because we all knew the drought would pass – in a year or two at the most – we had fun with it.
As to flushing the toilet, we all sang the jingle:
If it's yellow, let it mellow.
If it's brown, flush it down.
Restrictions were set in place as to watering lawns and other outdoor vegetation. During the worst of the drought, outdoor irrigation was forbidden.
That's when I started seeing my neighbors watering their lawns at three in the morning. Often, they would do it as quickly as possible to ensure their discretion. Everyone knew what was happening but looked the other way – chiefly because everyone was doing the same thing.
In those days, I worked at night. I often saw one of my neighbors watering his outdoor vegetation, and eventually I decided I had to confront him about it.
For some reason this gentleman liked to water his outdoor plants wearing nothing more than his underwear. I went up to him and suggested he put some clothes on. The next time I saw him, he was wearing a robe, but still watering his yard.
Looking back, I realize I was not so concerned about his watering his lawn in the middle of the night as I was that he had little or nothing on.
But things are different now. That drought of '76, one of the worst in California history, was over in about 12 months, just as everyone expected. But since then, California droughts have lasted four and five years. Now, they don't have an end. While the state may occasionally have rainfall – even significant rainfall – the natural climate condition in California is now very, very dry.
It's called aridification.
Here's what's happening. The region, including California, Nevada, and the Southwest United States, had a terrible drought from about 2012 to 2016. It did not impact all areas the same, but drought conditions were called in these areas.
Then things looked up. The region enjoyed a couple of very wet years. However, since about 2018, conditions have gotten drier and drier.
According to David Simeral, a climatologist with the U.S. Drought Monitor, since June 2021, there has been a rapid intensification of the drought. Among the reasons he cited are brutal heat, the failure of the Southwest monsoon to deliver any substantial rainfall, and the fact that many western states continued to get less and less precipitation.
We should note that higher temperatures often go hand in hand with aridification. They make the situation worse. Not only is there less precipitation, but because of the heat, there is also greater evaporation. We see this in the following examples:
Lake Mead, which sits on the border between Arizona and Nevada and is the largest human-made reservoir in the U.S., is at its lowest level since 1937. In some areas, the spouts installed to provide water for hydroelectricity are now exposed – the first time those have been seen since its construction.
The Sierra Nevada that supplies large parts of California with water, have seen their snowpack melt early the past few years, and due to higher spring temperatures, runoff didn't make it to streams and reservoirs. There was not enough water to make the journey; in other cases, streams started, but the water evaporated along the way.
Finally, as to fires, things could not be worse. There is extraordinarily little moisture in the forests, and summer temperatures have never been hotter in some areas. What has helped protect California forests in the past is a combination of moisture and warm but not necessarily hot weather.
"Most of the West is at increased risk of large, severe fires this year," says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "I know that sounds like a broken record, but maybe that's the point."
And that point is: aridification is now gripping large areas of the western United States and may continue to do so for decades to come. Now, its our job to do something about it, starting with using water as efficiently as possible.
Robert Kravitz is a writer for the professional building, cleaning, and green industries. He can be reached at robert@alturasolutions.com
