Somebody Call Jason Statham

🏜️ There’s a new ‘Meg’ in town. The drought enveloping the southwestern US over the past two decades is the region’s driest ‘megadrought’ in more than 1,200 years, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change.

• The researchers studied the area from southern Montana to northern Mexico, ranging from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. Their work focused on droughts that lasted 20 years or longer.
• They calculated the intensity of historical droughts by analyzing tree ring patterns, which provide insights about soil moisture levels for each individual year over long timespans. The scientists also checked their findings against historical climate data.
• The study found the current megadrought surpassed the previous record holder – which occurred in the late 1500s – due to the region’s record low precipitation and near-record high temps from summer 2020 to summer 2021.
• “Without [human-caused] climate change, the past 22 years would have probably still been the driest period in 300 years,” said UCLA geographer Park Williams, the study’s lead author. “But it wouldn’t be holding a candle to the megadroughts of the 1500s, 1200s or 1100s.”

+Present day: More than 90% of the Western US is currently experiencing drought conditions, according to the US Drought Monitor.