Western Drought: The Worst Is Yet to Come

Residents of the western U.S. could be in for droughts worse than they have ever seen, a blue ribbon panel warned today. The severe, recurrent droughts that parched the region in past centuries could strike again--and could even be exacerbated by a regional warming trend.

Much of the western U.S. was gripped by drought from 2002 to 2005. During these years, water flow in the Colorado River--which supplies tens of millions of people in seven states--dropped to as low as a quarter of its usual value. That crisis spurred several federal and state water agencies to ask the National Academy of Science's National Research Council (NRC) to examine the state of science on the future of the river's water.