Colorado Water
The drought that is drying up Lake Powell and Lake Meade is nothing compared to mega droughts that the west has experienced in the past, according to the Rocky Mountain News [October 8, 2004, "Current drought a wimp"]. From the article, "That's the conclusion of researchers who pieced together an unprecedented regional drought record from tree rings sampled at hundreds of sites across the West. The new record is the most comprehensive reconstruction of Western drought to date, extending previous efforts by 900 years. The new record sheds light on a drought-prone 400-year period between A.D. 900 and 1300. It is punctuated by four decades- long, regionwide megadroughts centered on the years 936, 1034, 1150 and 1253...Though the drought has eased over Colorado's Front Range, severe to extreme drought persists in far western Colorado and across most of Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Arizona, according to the federal Drought Monitor.
Here's the coverage from the Denver Post [October 8, 2004, "Tree-ring study peers into possible future droughts"].
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