Introduction
The current drought experienced in California is not different from the drought experienced in the past hence using climatic change as the main cause of the drought is not the right answer for the current drought experienced in California. Climatic change can also be considered as part of the contribution to drought experienced in California. This is because the recent rise in temperature experienced in California is also experienced in other parts of the world hence differs with the climatic condition experienced in the past century. Climatic change can take any form either change in precipitation cycle, amount of precipitation received in the region. The high temperature experienced in California worsens through, loss of extra soil moisture, interfering with timing of the snow melts and decrease water reserve through evaporation and increases the rate of evapotranspiration (Singer 2007 pp126).
Current Drought in California
It is known that if the problem of climatic change in California persists, it is for certain that the temperature will keep on going up and increase the evaporative demand of water. The ratio of snow to rain falling on the mountain will increase, the timing of runoff will change and snow pack will reduce. The sea level is on the rise hence affecting the brackish water ecosystem and coastal aquifers. This increased heat in the climate system will enable the natural drought to come in quicker, hence will take a longer time and will be more intense. California is also mainly linked to the timing and quantity of precipitation, the climatic change impact on the intensity and frequency of La Nina and El Nino events, the dynamic of Pacific Ocean storm formation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and jet stream behavior as conditioned in the Arctic change. These changes are very important to the intensity and frequency of the drought impacts of the future California (Knox et al 1991 pp72).
Most scientists agree that unusual moisture has been experienced in the past century and warned that California is vulnerable to Sevier drought that may last for decades. Cold season drought conditions have mainly dominated most of the Southwestern North American parts since 1999. The high temperature and deficiency in precipitation combination has caused hydrological condition in some areas hence matching the severity of the 1950s drought.
The rise in temperature experienced in the area can have a direct effect on drought as well as the circulation trait that promotes drought in large scale. Mainly south-west droughts experience higher temperature because of factors such as dry soil, lack of cloud cover and reduced evapotranspiration. Major droughts of 20th century including those of 1930s and 1950s have occurred during the period of elevated temperatures, with high pressure hence drying and surface heating in both summer and winter and displaced storm tracks around the drought regions. However, drought does not always coincides with high temperature.
Comparison of Droughts in California's Modern Historical Records As Well As Those in Prehistorical Environmental Reconstructions
The drought of the mid-12th century covers the entire Northern Mexico and western U.S. except for a small part of the northwest Great Plains. However, the Pacific Northwest has not been impacted by the 21st drought. The drought experienced at the 21st century has so far lasted about a decade while on the other hand medieval drought experienced on the 12th century persisted with a severity display and extended in the worst-case decade, 1146 - 1155. In the past 12th century, hemispheric scale temperature elevated for most of that period. The persistence of the medieval drought is also evidenced by the Colorado River reconstruction. While the consecutive year maximum number of the gage record median flow is five years. Reconstruction of the long- term contains a long- run of 17 in total. 13 years being the longest in the mid- 1100s, a period of lack of high flow and characterized stretches of slightly low flow. Whereas individual reconstructed annual flows were not that low in the mid 1100s, absence years that are wet translate into a low average record over a few decades period. The running mean for ten years of reconstructed flow dropped below the observed mean of 2000- 2009 in the entire reconstruction fourteen times, and the mid-1100s entails three of those. Because of the conservative nature of the regression-based tree ring, this evidence strongly indicates the mid 1100s were as dry as the last ten years. In the Sacramento River, stream flow reconstructed, in 1158 ending of twenty-year period was the second, hence indicating this drought effect in Northern Sierra Nevada watershed as well. However, temperature being one of the critical variables related to drought was almost higher during the drought of the 21st century than during the medieval drought (Woodhouse et al. 2010 pp 21286).
Conclusion
The drought recently experienced in California should not only be seen as an effect of the climatic change. However, also the historical and the pre-historical drought experienced in that region. This consideration will enable the scientist to come up with a sound decision on how to prevent further severe drought in the future. This will enable them understand if the drought experienced in the region had been experienced before or not.
Works Cited
Connie A. Woodhousea, David M. Mekob, Glen M. MacDonaldc, Dave W. Stahled, and Edward R. Cooke. A 1,200-year perspective of 21st century drought in southwestern North America 2010
Knox, Joseph B, and Ann F. Scheuring. Global Climate Change and California: Potential Impacts and Responses. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Print.
Singer, S F, and Dennis T. Avery. Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007. Print.
