Thursday, March 13, 2008
The wet West
About a month ago I wrote a post on the long drought in the western United States and this winter's alleviation thereof. In this morning's dead-tree New York Times there is a graphic that shows that the December - February precipitation in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico was the tenth most in the last 113 years, California and Nevada had their 41st wettest winter on record, and the Pacific Northwest was at 36/113. There are no conclusions to be drawn, except that presumably the first bit should help raise Lakes Mead and Powell when it melts away.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Mar 13, 07:38:00 AM:
Move along now, nothing to see here, we're still killing the planet......
By , at
Thu Mar 13, 08:43:00 AM:
Regression to the mean. Happens every so often, when you plot statistics that reflect climate and not seasonal or daily weather.
Surprise.
-David
By , at
Thu Mar 13, 09:11:00 AM:
If the drought were a real crisis, the government would have moved decades ago to slow down or stop the current wave of illegal immigration.
I will believe it is a crisis when the people who say it is a crisis start acting like it is a crisis.
Glen Reynolds
By 
TigerHawk, at
Thu Mar 13, 02:14:00 PM:
I'm not sure I agree with that, tyree. Politics often prevents the government from doing sensible and obvious things. For instance, just about everybody except voters in the arid states believes that the solution to Western water shortages lies in the fairer pricing of water in the region, so that people who consume it have a reason not to waste it. The fact that government has not revised the pricing of water does not mean that it would be enormously beneficial to do so. The same, I would say, applies for the prevention of illegal immigration.
By , at
Fri Mar 14, 12:36:00 AM:
Proves AL GORE and the idiots from GREENPEACE and SIERRA CLUB and a bunch of big fat green liars
By Patrick Wahl, at
Fri Mar 14, 12:41:00 AM:
What do you mean - no conclusions to be drawn? There is one very clear conclusion to be drawn - global warming. If it's too wet, cold, dry, hot, it's because we are changing the weather.
