Human emissions drove the megadrought in the western US
The water level of the Reflection Canyon, a section of the Colorado River, was extremely low in 2021. (Credit: Jay Huang/Flickr)
Greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions from human activity have been driving the prolonged drought in the western United States through a complicated connection with the Pacific Ocean, according to a new CU Boulder-led study.
For more than two decades, an extreme dry spell hasdrained the Colorado River, devastated local farms, and intensified wildfires across the American Southwest. The new prediction, , could help water managers region develop better water use plans or invest in infrastructure accordingly, with relief potentially still decades away.
“Our results show that the drought and ocean patterns we’re seeing today are not just natural fluctuations—they’re largely driven by human activity,” said Jeremy Klavans, postdoctoral researcher in CU Boulder’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and lead author of the study.
Worst drought in 12 centuries
The water level of Lake Mead on the Colorado River dropped to about a third of its total capacity in 2021 and reached the lowest point in the lake’s history in 2023. (Credit: )
The drought hitting the Colorado River Basin states and California is directly linked to a climate pattern of the north Pacific Ocean, known as the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO).
The PDO is a natural fluctuation of the Pacific that waxes and wanes every two decades or so. In its positive phase, waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean along the U.S. West Coast tend to be warmer, whereas waters near Japan are colder. In its negative phase, the pattern flips, bringing cold water to the eastern Pacific.
Since the 1990s, the PDO has been stuck in a negative phase, an unusually long stretch for a typical cycle, Klavans said.
That has had profound impacts on the United States. The cold air and water along the U.S. West Coast hold less moisture than warm air, causing a reduction in precipitation. This extended cool phase also pushed storms that would have brought water to the region farther north.
As a result, scientists estimated that about of the western United States is experiencing drought, with 70% facing severe dry conditions. Prior studies have shown that the past two decades have been the driest in the American Southwest in at least.
Scientists had long thought that the PDO was entirely determined by natural forces, such as the heat exchanges between the ocean and the air. Even the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),a body of experts convened by the United Nations, said the PDO is controlled by natural forces with high confidence.
If that theory was correct, the PDO should have flipped from negative to positive in 2015 after a strong El Niño event warmed the Pacific.
Instead, the PDO shifted positive for a short time following the El Niño before reverting to the negative phase again.
New reality
To understand why the PDO has been stuck, Klavans and his team used a large collection of climate simulation programs to predict what would happen in the future.
Using a new suite of over 570 simulations, the team found that between 1870 and 1950, changes in the PDO were almost entirely driven by internal forces. But since the mid-20th century, greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions have accounted for more than half of the variations in the PDO.
The team discovered that existing climate models tend to overestimate the role of internal factors on the PDO while underestimating the influence of external factors, such as emissions. After correcting the imbalance, the team found that emissions, and their impacts on the PDO, have been responsible for nearly all of the precipitation decline in the western United States over the past three decades.
“People have been trying for a long time to find out why this part of the country is so dry, and we have an answer for that finally,” Klavans said.
Because the same imbalance has been shown in other regions, Klavans said the study’s implications could go far beyond the Pacific. For example, the North Atlantic Oscillation, a similar fluctuation over the Atlantic Ocean, is driving drought in places like Spain. He added that improving climate models to capture the role of external forces could help scientists predict future changes in precipitation across the globe.
As for the American Southwest, the outlook is grim. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the PDO will likely remain in its negative phase, and the drought will persist for at least the next three decades, Klavans said.
“With this information, water planners could set new expectations and make proper investments in water infrastructure now, knowing this drought is here to stay,” Klavans said.
For example, some Californian cities are already building desalination plants to turn seawater into drinking water.
“This study can allow us to better quantify the costs of continued greenhouse gas emissions for Americans,” Klavans said. “That can only help our region plan for a better future.”