Droughts Like the One in the US to Become More Common

Leading climate scientists believe that the incidence of adverse weather events such as the massive drought currently spreading through the United States will increase in the future, as the effects of global warming become more and more pervasive.

Over significant portions of the US Midwest, the drought is already classified as a D4 event, which is the worst possible scenario. D4 droughts lead to “exceptional and widespread crop and pasture losses” and “water emergencies,” according to their official definition, Technology Review reports.

A large number of streams and wells are in danger of drying out, jeopardizing the water supply available for the general population. The director of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, Thomas Karl, says that there is a human component in these weather patterns.

“This heat wave has a contribution from human activities, and you can expect these kinds of things to become even more extreme during both your and my lifetimes as we continue to increase greenhouse gases,” the expert says.