Drought 2002 in Colorado: An Unprecedented Drought or a Routine Drought? |
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| Authors: | Roger A Pielke Sr Nolan Doesken Odilia Bliss Tara Green Clara Chaffin Jose D Salas Connie A Woodhouse Jeffrey J Lukas Klaus Wolter |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 80523-1371, CO, U.S.A;(2) Present address: University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho;(3) Civil Engineering Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1372, U.S.A;(4) Paleoclimatology Branch, National Climatic Data Center, NOAA, 325 Broadway, E/CC23 Boulder, CO, 80305, U.S.A;(5) Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Campus Box 450, Boulder, CO, 80309-0450, U.S.A;(6) NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, University of Colorado, Campus Box 216, Boulder, CO, 80309-0216, U.S.A |
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| Abstract: | The 2002 drought in Colorado was reported by the media and by public figures, and even by a national drought-monitoring agency, as an exceptionally severe drought. In this paper we examine evidence for this claim. Our study shows that, while the impacts of water shortages were exceptional everywhere, the observed precipitation deficit was less than extreme over a good fraction of the state. A likely explanation of this discrepancy is the imbalance between water supply and water demand over time. For a given level of water supply, water shortages become intensified as water demands increase over time. The sobering conclusion is that Colorado is more vulnerable to drought today than under similar precipitation deficits in the past. |
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| Keywords: | Drought precipitation Colorado streamflow snowpack paleoclimatology |
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