Covering Drought

Welcome to Locally Sourced, a biweekly Covering Climate Now newsletter for journalists working to localize the climate story. Share this newsletter with colleagues and journalism students interested in localizing the climate story.

Story Spark: Drought

Following unseasonable warmth and a nearly rain-free October for many areas, 83% of the US is now facing “flash droughts,” which are anticipated to become more frequent as our atmosphere warms.

Compared to more conventional droughts, which develop over one or more dry seasons, flash droughts form and intensify rapidly when dry spells are accompanied by abnormally warm temperatures. This “one-two punch” sucks moisture from the soil, resulting in devastating impacts to agriculture, increased water scarcity, and amplified wildfire risks.

Climate change is also worsening drought by changing precipitation patterns: causing heavier rainfall that’s impossible for the ground to absorb, resulting in run-off into rivers, and, in some areas, storm systems are shifting away from drought-prone areas.

It’s important to note that climate change’s influence on droughts is complex; research shows there’s a greater connection in drought severity and likelihood in some areas across the world (such as the western US) compared to others. Local climatologists will be able to provide a better picture of how droughts are evolving in your area. Reach out to an expert for help determining whether and how local drought conditions are exacerbated by climate change.

Stories We Like

• In drought-prone Arizona, ABC15 Arizona in Phoenix examines a possible solution to its ongoing water problem and explores the economic feasibility in collecting water from the nearby Verde River.
• The Los Angeles Times examines the many markers of drought, from snowpacks to ranching, and highlights its impact on the Colorado River.
• In northern Alberta, Canada, CBC News Saskatchewan highlights how the Indigenous peoples living on a remote river delta are adapting as water levels fall after years of declining rainfall due to climate change.
• As the Midwest battles its own flash drought, Inside Climate News explores how the abnormally dry conditions are disrupting barges on the Mississippi River.
• The Times West Virginian explores how farmers are faring as the state battles its worst drought in nearly 20 years.
• KNTV in San Francisco reports on how indoor farming may solve some of the issues faced by farmers suffering in the state’s historic drought.
• Hundreds of miles above Earth, NASA satellites are looking for “glowing plants” that may help predict flash droughts.

Expert Tips

Dorany Pineda — a water, climate, and environment reporter with the Associated Press — offers tips to help journalists report on drought. Writing in both Spanish and English, Pineda has extensively covered the historic drought in the American West and its impact on Latino communities.

While droughts have widespread effects, marginalized communities and delicate ecosystems bear the brunt. Droughts cause widespread damage and devastation, but some feel their impact more severely. For example, droughts contribute to higher water bills, and it’s often low-income and people of color who struggle to pay them. Rural communities reliant on domestic wells can see their wells dry up from drought and groundwater overpumping, leaving them without a water source for months, even years. Drier-than-normal conditions can also lead to habitat loss for various species and pose extinction threats to plants and animals.

Explain the larger context. What’s making droughts drier and longer? Human-caused climate change is the driving force. Scientists agree that burning fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, emits heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to rise. As they do, more water from the ground evaporates, drying out soil and vegetation. Dry soil has a harder time absorbing moisture when it rains.

Explain how drought interacts with other extremes. Drought and wildfires are closely tied. Droughts — when, how often, and how intensely they happen — affect wildfire behavior and flammability. When combined with extreme heat, drought can decrease snowpacks, increase evaporation of water sources, dry soils, and cause widespread tree deaths, which can fuel potentially explosive and massive wildfires.

Highlight what is and isn’t being done. Has the area you’re reporting on adapted a climate resiliency plan that addresses dwindling water availability? Are water desalination or water recycling plants in the works? What are farmers doing to reduce their water use? Are leaders doing anything to help? How are they falling short?

Helpful Links

Resources

• Since 1980, drought has resulted in $361 billion in losses in the US. Dive into the data on the @National Centers for Environmental Information’s website.
• Reach out to your local Regional Climate Center or State Climatology Office to better understand how drought is developing in your area.
• Explore climate attribution studies explaining climate’s role in extreme droughts from World Weather Attribution.
• Some states, including California, keep track of the number of dry wells. Check out your state’s water resources department website to find out if they have this resource on file.

Maps/Graphics:

• Dive into the latest US Drought Monitor to understand the current drought intensity of your area. This resource is also available in Spanish.
• Explore how drought is evolving week by week with maps and animations, also on the Drought Monitor website.
• Understand how soil moisture, drought frequency, and more will change in a climate-changed future through maps on NOAA’s website.
• View long-range temperature and precipitation forecasts from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.
• Climate Central, Inc. has graphics and animations highlighting how rainfall and snowfall have shifted nationally over the past 30 years.

Recommended Experts:

• Dr. Benjamin Cook, climate scientist, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
• Dr. Andreas Prein, atmospheric scientist, ETH Zurich
• Brian Fuchs, climatologist, National Drought Mitigation Center
• The California Institute for Water Resources and Stanford University also have a long list of recommended experts

Before We Go…

The next Locally Sourced will highlight climate change’s impact on winter weather. Reported snow drought, dwindling ice, or other winter weather stories? Send them to us at local[at]coveringclimatenow[dot]org. We’d love to consider them for the next edition of Locally Sourced and our media trainings and social platforms.

The Climate Station is a free-of-cost training program from CCNow that equips local TV station newsrooms in the US, including journalists, producers, and meteorologists, to cover climate news more effectively. For inquiries, please email Elena González at elena[at]coveringclimatenow[dot]org. Or apply here.

Want more tips on how to localize the climate story? Check out CCNow’s recent webinar, “Telling the Climate Story Locally.”

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