The New York Times says drought in the Great Plains is caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
“It’s Not Just Poor Rains Causing Drought. The Atmosphere Is ‘Thirstier.’
Higher temperatures caused by climate change are driving complex processes that make droughts bigger and more severe, new research shows.”
It’s Not Just Poor Rains Causing Drought. The Atmosphere Is ‘Thirstier.’ – The New York Times
There isn’t any indication that droughts have become more severe or more common in the Great Plains.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/cirs/climdiv/climdiv-pdsidv-v1.0.0-20240606
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-content/sotc/drought/psi/psi-193408.gif
I see, if you heat up water the partial pressure of water vapour falls, does it? So we have to cool the boiler of a steam engine to generate steam. Is that right?
What a load of manure! This article’s source is full of it. So it’s only very old pivot sprinklers that are problematic? Duh, a host of practical reasons exist as to why:
The pump has degraded which not only puts less water to the sprinkler heads but this water pressure and flow is what drives the pivot’s wheels, ergo it spins slower and is putting out less water – because the system has old and worn components.
Again with spinning slower, the drive wheels have degraded tire pressure, which reduces their circumference, making the spin speed lower.
And a host of other mundane reasons are to be investigate and attribution assigned before the insane conclusion that the air is more thirsty! (like the thousands of feet of lay flat hose feeding these behemoths have become brittle and shrunk, thus deliver less water)
Anyone who does not recognize that old equipment left out in a field for 10-20 years does not degrade is an idiot or a moron.
Many of these irrigation systems are supplied from wells. Is it possible they have drained the aquifers and now have less water?
‘By the time the sprinkler’s arm swings back around to its starting point, the soil has nearly dried out.’
I’ve told you a million times not to exaggerate.
Beware ‘new research.’
‘It’s a complicated physical process that is hard to capture in models and, for a long time, studies of global droughts only focused on precipitation.’
The article is paywalled, so I didn’t get beyond this. I assume HE has modeled a complicated physical process that is hard to capture in models, and he is announcing his fabulous results, and ding dong Dzombak thinks it’s just fine.
You don’t hate journalists enough.
Wouldn’t people use the sprinklers at night to avoid that?
I would argue that it’s not the atmosphere that’s thirsty. it’s the soil that’s thirsty. trying to raise a crop on sandy soil is always going to be a challenge. There are places like near the Iowa Minnesota border where the soil is so heavy you can go 2 weeks without rain and still get a bumper crop.
Spraying water under pressure will make the air over the crop and ground humid, so gobbledegook journoscience postulates that humid air absorbs humidity from wet ground in such a short period of time that the ground dries out before the next time the spray boom comes around, as the atmosphere is thirstier. Interesting theory. If somebody could finance me to the tune of $5 million I’ll investigate and report back.
I’ve noticed too, that water is getting wetter because of climate change. It’s much wetter that it was in grandma’s time, she told me it wasn’t as wet as it is now. I noticed this when I went for a swim, it was much wetter than it was, even last year.
I wonder if Greta Turdburg has noticed this phenomenon, as she sails toward Gaza?