Drought in the West

The American West is enduring one of its worst droughts in recorded history. By July 2021, nearly 59 percent of the land in seven Western states was experiencing extreme to exceptional drought (the most intense level of drought). In California, bodies of water called reservoirs are drying up. That’s alarming because they supply water for homes and agriculture, as well as generate electricity via hydropower.

Droughts are nothing new in the West. But scientists think climate change is making these dry periods more frequent—and more severe. Experts agree that rising temperatures increased the severity of the latest drought by causing more water to evaporate, or change from a liquid to a gas. A hotter atmosphere is “thirstier,” sucking moisture from soil and plants, says Ben Cook, a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. As a result, says Cook, “climate change is making the drought much more extreme.”