this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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The Southwest United States is currently facing its worst megadrought of the past 1,200 years. According to a recent study by the University of Texas at Austin, the drought could continue at least until the end of the century, if not longer.

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[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

Not even a relevant anything here, but I have ridden a bicycle nearly daily for over 15 years in Southern California. I'm on the coast an in the deep water upwelling micro climate. That is too small and insignificant to matter at scale. Still the overall wind patterns have shifted drastically in the last few years. We are getting much more humidity. Before that, it was always a dominant dry pattern for a few weeks, then a humid day or two at most, before the pattern repeats. Where I am located, when commuting the humid pattern means headwinds riding to work and home. That is something one remembers well. Headwinds are miserable on a bike like far worse than rain. During a dry pattern there is an on-shore morning breeze (tailwind for me) and offshore wind in the evening (ditto).

Anyways that moisture must be going somewhere. With the rate of change here, it would not surprise me if Los Angeles and San Diego suddenly started becoming tropical in coming decades. They will if deep water upwelling is overcome by the surface temperature to the point of disruption of the current flow. I have no idea if that is really possible, but I bet it is as expansion of the tropics seems inevitable.