

Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S - mturmon
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/mapping-the-spread-of-drought-across-the-us.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumMediumMediaFloated&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

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TravisLS
What's the evidence for the link between west coast droughts in recent years
and global warming? (I'm not trying to start a debate, just genuinely asking).

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crygin
I apologize for not having time right now to track down primary sources for
you, but if you're interested in learning more about the current research
specifically on this drought and climate, look up stuff related to the
position and strength of the North Pacific High, how it's affected by the
Arctic Oscillation (and decoupling of the AO from the North Atlantic
Oscillation), and how those are related to extreme jet stream configurations
(regarding which there is emerging evidence for a relationship with Arctic sea
ice extent).

And if you find good stuff, post the links!

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schiffern
Dr. Jennifer Francis at Rutgers has a great talk on the polar vortex and
climate:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETpm9JAdfcs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETpm9JAdfcs)
(40m, polar vortex starts at 24m)

Full unedited:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtRvcXUIyZg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtRvcXUIyZg)
(1h24m)

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josephschmoe
We really, really need to stop growing lawn grass as a region.

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ssmoot
I'm only 1 season in, but clover is nice.

A part of the grass thing I think is the fairly recent desire to have a pure
Fescue/Bermuda/etc grass lawn.

I don't remember why, but a few months ago it popped into my head: You know,
when I was a kid in Harlingen, there was clover everywhere. We'd pick a bit
out of lawns as we roamed the neighborhood and chew on it. It's been decades
since I've seen a neighborhood like that...

So I bought some clover seed and spread it around. Within just a couple weeks
(4 or 5 days of daily watering at the outset to establish it) it was crazy
green, spread through most of the lawn, while not being disruptive to the
grass. The grass actually seems to be benefitting. It is chocking out weeds
OTOH, so win win win. Overall my lawn is a whole lot brighter/greener/more-
alive and it doesn't take more than the twice weekly watering schedule allowed
by DFW's water conservation ordinances.

Now at the height of summer my lawn looks better than most of my neighbors and
unlike the retirees' manicured lawns I'm not out there watering with a hose (a
loophole the water conservation ordinance allows to please the demographic)
daily.

I just thought it was noteworthy that there's a middle-ground between green
painted gravel like Sun City, AZ, and golf-course lawns.

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positr0n
> watering with a hose (a loophole...)

Are you sure that's a loophole? I've seen statistics that hand watering and
drip irrigation systems are much less wasteful than sprinklers. And sprinklers
are the only thing that are banned to twice-weekly in my region of DFW at
least.

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ssmoot
I think drip is in a different category.

I wouldn't argue your overall point, but my point is that it's not like those
neighbors don't run their sprinkler systems. They're supplementing with hand
watering. Not substituting.

And who has time for that except empty-nesters?

Don't get me wrong. I love my neighbors. Living in the city has been an
entirely different experience for me coming from the suburbs. There's an
actual feeling of community here I never experienced out there.

Maybe it's unfair, but I just expect City Hall would have a hard time going to
usage based billing instead.

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cwal37
A few water and the southwest related articles:

Water and Texas: [http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/print-view/who-stole-
the...](http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/print-view/who-stole-the-
water-20140623)

Arizona and wildfires (and water):
[http://www.azcentral.com/news/wildfires/yarnell/arizona-
wild...](http://www.azcentral.com/news/wildfires/yarnell/arizona-wildfires-
homes-forests-risk/)

SoCal's current water management (shorter than the other articles):
[http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-famiglietti-
south...](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-famiglietti-southern-
california-drought-20140709-story.html)

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josephschmoe
I think there's a certain point at which we need to accept, and are accepting,
that droughts will happen and that we need to prepare for them.

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bjliu
Mike Bostock and D3!

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mturmon
Exactly! I submitted it because @mbostock
([https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mbostock](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mbostock))
is a contributor here, and I think (?) this is his first direct appearance in
the NYT. Congratulations!

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dmarusic16
Not true: Mike Bostock's stuff is all over the NYT website very frequently. He
and Jeremy Ashkenas seem to be key players over there. Very inspiring work
from both of them.

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mturmon
Thanks for the correction.

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mathattack
I recall reading that Napa and Sonoma are going downhill as a result, and that
10-15 more years of this will make the Washington and Oregon wines just as
good, if not better. I hope the Microsoft millionaires are investing in wine
country. :-)

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danso
I think this excellent feature also serves as a great example of the
shortcomings of maps. When I saw the tweeted screenshot of the most recent
version of this map, I thought, "Oh shit, the drought is all over the place!"

However, actually going to the article and seeing the D3 animation...I see
that it's...kind of the same as before? That is, still not great, but not
overall more of a severe drought? Or is it? Just because it looks like a few
areas have receded, I can't say for sure my eye is summing up all the drought-
areas correctly...so even with the time-lapse, it's hard to tell if things
have gotten worse, or better...

And of course, "better/worse" compared to the last few months is just one
thing to care about...I'd also like to know how the drought level right now
compares to last year, last decade, etc....and while we're looking at the
past, I want to see what the _rates of change_ were in those past timeframes,
so I can judge whether or not the change from this month to last is drastic or
expected (based on the cycle).

The bottom of the article contains just that chart (which is why I think this
is such a great feature)...of course, you lose the geographical information,
but at least the perspective is there. One minor improvement, with a small
tradeoff in clutter, is to overlay a small part of the Palmer Drought Index
chart on top (or near) the map, so that anyone visiting this map, now or in
the future, can have some perspective at a glance on how bad the drought
is...because without that frame of reference, just about _any_ quantity of
orange/red over a geographical map will be dramatic.

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Retric
The map is just for this summer, so it's not really trying to show a
progression. Just which areas are in continuous drought vs a 1 off.

An annual map going back a 100 or so years would be vary interesting, but I
don't think we have that data.

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rplst8
This. There may be some correlation between AGW and this drought, but this map
is not doing a good job of illustrating that.

