What Happened To Joe’s Permanent Drought?

By Paul Homewood

https://www.energycentral.com/c/ec/dust-storm-marks-beginning-southwests-permanent-drought

In 2011, Joe Romm assured us that a dust storm marked the beginning of the Southwest’s permanent drought.

Back in the real world, after that brief blip, precipitation there has returned to perfectly normal levels:

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/regional/time-series/107/pcp/60/12/1895-2019?base_prd=true&firstbaseyear=1901&lastbaseyear=2000

Meanwhile a new paper has reconstructed New Mexico’s hydroclimate going back to 500BC. This puts the 21stC drought into perspective:

OliverHarleyMaxwell19-April30-2500Yrs-HydroClimateVar-NewMexico

It is evident that long and severe megadroughts have been commonplace. As the authors say:

Since ca. 500 BCE, over 50 drought events have surpassed the severity

of recent 21st century conditions

Settled science!