Climate Change Across the American West

Climate change as a result of global warming is already underway across the American West and it is likely to intensify which will result in significant noteworthy changes to lifestyles, qualities of life, ecosystems, and local economies. Temperatures will rise probably more greatly than expected; for example, places like Denver and Cheyenne in 20 years or so will have temperatures with regularity now seen in Roswell and Carlsbad, NM. The more critical change will occur with precipitation. Rainfall will replace snowfall in many places for a much greater time of the year, and the frequency and intensity of rainfall will change from being gradual and spread out to being more greater in quantity during single events and less in frequency throughout the year. This will be particularly true in mountain regions and other higher altitude locations where the snowpack will become less. Snow will start falling later, melt sooner, and be of a lesser quantity overall. Moisture will come much more frequently in the form of intense thunderstorms which will drop rain quickly and ferociously. Most important, drought will becoming the predominant feature of the entire region, as rainfall and snowfall patterns will change markedly. Some areas that now enjoy adequate moisture will alter into a more desertlike environment with extended periods of limited at best precipitation. Some of this can already be seen in parts of the Central and Northern Rockies where fires are occuring more frequently and in times earlier and later in the year than what has occurred historically. Adjacent prairie and plains areas are also being beset by warmer temperatures, lesser occurences of rainfall and snowfall, and longer and more intense periods of drought. Within a quarter to half century, most of the American West will resemble the Great Western Basin of Utah and Nevada with mountains being more similar to the desert mountains of New Mexico and Arizona. The challenge for leadership throughout this region will be in finding and maintaining adequate water supplies for the population and agricultural economy. Residential vegetation, particularly lawns and decorative trees and shrubs, will have to be limited to meet human and agricultural needs especially as the population is expected to nearly double in the Mountain States region in the next 35 years.
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http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-3/final-report/default.htm
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/27/AR2008052702639.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008052702928
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