
5: Present Weather and Climate: Evolving Conditions
Present Weather and Climate: Evolving Conditions reveals the variability and trends of the region’s climate using data from weather instruments and paleoclimate records (such as tree rings), comparing the climate of the last 100 years with that of the last 1,000 years, and linking patterns of past climatic conditions to the variability of river flows in the region’s major water basins.
Citation:
Hoerling, M. P., M. Dettinger, K. Wolter, J. Lukas, J. Eischeid, R. Nemani, B. Liebmann, and K. E. Kunkel. 2013. “Present Weather and Climate: Evolving Conditions.” In Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest United States: A Report Prepared for the National Climate Assessment, edited by G. Garfin, A. Jardine, R. Merideth, M. Black, and S. LeRoy, 74–100. A report by the Southwest Climate Alliance. Washington, DC: Island Press.

The areal extent of drought over the Southwest during 2001–2010 was the second largest observed for any decade from 1901 to 2010.

The period since 1950 has been hotter in the Southwest than any comparable period in at least 600 years.
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