6,000-year climate record suggests longer droughts, drier climate for Pacific Northwest
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 11:20
in Earth & Climate
University of Pittsburgh-led researchers extracted a 6,000-year climate record from a Washington lake that shows that the famously rain-soaked American Pacific Northwest could not only be in for longer dry seasons, but also is unlikely to see a period as wet as the 20th century any time soon. In a recent report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team linked the longer dry spells to the intensifying El Niño/La Niña climate pattern and concluded that Western states will likely suffer severe water shortages as El Nino/La Nina wields greater influence on the region.