Now researchers using tree-ring data have determined six multiyear droughts between 1750 and 1950 that were much more severe than anything in recent memory because they persisted for years, including one that stretched for 12 years.

"Imagine what a drought lasting that long would do to the resources and economy of the region today," says Dave Peterson of the U.S. Agriculture Department's Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and the University of Washington's College of Forest Resources.

The study, recently published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association, is the first to establish Columbia River flow estimates back 250 years, says lead author Ze'ev Gedalof of the University of Guelph, Ontario. Reliable natural-runoff estimates extend back only about 75 years, he says.

Of the six major multiyear droughts researchers detected in the Columbia River Basin, the most severe and persistent started in the 1840s and lasted 12 years in a row. Flows were 20 percent below long-term averages, Gedalof says, and could have been even lower, the extreme low flows being something the model used in the project cannot pinpoint as precisely as it can the years the droughts persisted.

The second worst corresponds to the 1930s dry period that, together with poor farming practices, caused the Dust Bowl. The Columbia River Basin experienced multiple years of low flows, punctuated with some average years, during that time.

In addition to the extremes of the 1840s and 1930s, other periods of low flows around 1775, 1805, 1890 and 1925 were notable, but shorter, lasting some three to five years each.

"This is a wake up call for the importance of drought planning, and seeking ways to restore some flexibility in Western water supply systems
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Contact: Sandra Hines
shines@u.washington.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington
14-Feb-2005