Lake Lanier (Georgia) Will Be Dry By January 30

Maybe this will wake up the Red State of Georgia to the reality of Global Warming:

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/14329149/detail.html

ATLANTA -- Governor Sonny Perdue wants to keep more water in Georgia during our historic drought. He asked the Army Corps of Engineers Friday to reduce the flow of water from Georgia to Florida and Alabama.

In a letter to the Corps Perdue said if the water flow south isn't cut back Lake Lanier will be dry by the end of January. Perdue asked the Corps to begin the reduced flow immediately and keep the restrictions in place until March 1, 2008.

"Today we are handing the Army Corps of Engineers a solution to an ongoing problem that has contributed to the most severe drought in Georgia history," said Perdue. "This is a unifying document that will help citizens that live upstream, midstream and downstream of Georgia's reservoirs, as well as citizens in Alabama and Florida."

Water from Georgia lakes and rivers provide drinking water to communities in Alabama and Florida, but those states have not enacted any water restrictions.Since September 28 when outdoor watering was banned in much of north Georgia the area has cut water consumption by 15 percent, according to Carol Couch, head of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Perdue set a deadline for a response from the Corps by Wednesday, October 17.

It's about 40 miles southeast of where I grew up in north Georgia. My father and I would visit almost every weekend, watching the bridges being built over nothing, and trying to picture how it would look full of water. I don't understand why it is that Alabama and Florida have claims on Georgia's water. After all, no rivers flow INTO Georgia, only out. Some of them even flow due north. It doesn't really concern me anymore since I now live in Mississippi, but Georgia will always be "home," even though it has gone straight to hell politically in the last ten years or so.

I guess they could stomp around the lake bed and shovel up the fish as they flop around in the mud, but somehow it doesn't seem the same as cruising around the lake in a $30,000 bass boat with a case of beer in the cooler.

Seriously though I don't think a lot of global warming deniers will even make the connection.

:shrug:

I don't know about the northern part of the state, but down here they still hand out fines.

shortage is inevitable... I want to see the correlation between the South being dry and global warming. It would be incredibly hard to model this... but I'm sure someone has... Where's the paper? I want to check it out.

Drought's Growing Reach:
NCAR Study Points to Global Warming as Key Factor

http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2005/drought_research.shtml


January 10, 2005

BOULDER- The percentage of Earth's land area stricken by serious drought more than doubled from the 1970s to the early 2000s, according to a new analysis by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Widespread drying occurred over much of Europe and Asia, Canada, western and southern Africa, and eastern Australia. Rising global temperatures appear to be a major factor, says NCAR's Aiguo Dai, lead author of the study.

Dai will present the new findings on January 12 at the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting in San Diego. The work also appears in the December issue of the Journal of Hydrometeorology in a paper also authored by NCAR's Kevin Trenberth and Taotao Qian. The study was supported by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's primary sponsor.

Dai and colleagues found that the fraction of global land experiencing very dry conditions (defined as -3 or less on the Palmer Drought Severity Index) rose from about 10-15% in the early 1970s to about 30% by 2002. Almost half of that change is due to rising temperatures rather than decreases in rainfall or snowfall, according to Dai.

"Global climate models predict increased drying over most land areas during their warm season, as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increase," says Dai. "Our analyses suggest that this drying may have already begun."

Even as drought has expanded across Earth's land areas, the amount of water vapor in the air has increased over the past few decades. The average global precipitation has also risen slightly. However, as Dai notes, "surface air temperatures over global land areas have increased sharply since the 1970s." The large warming increases the tendency for moisture to evaporate from land areas. Together, the overall area experiencing either very dry or very wet conditions could occupy a greater fraction of Earth's land areas in a warmer world, Dai says.



This depiction of linear trends in the Palmer Drought Severity Index from 1948 to 2002 shows drying (reds and pinks) across much of Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa and moistening (green) across parts of the United States, Argentina, Scandinavia, and western Australia. (Illustration courtesy Aiguo Dai and the American Meteorological Society.)

actual journal (do you have a link). Nothing is gained, nor lost... just changed. A better approach at this would be to show differing patterns in the wind bands and jet streams... These are more relevant with weather distribution patterns. I would not have done a model based on surface air temp and warming seasons... anyway their work, not mine.... Climate change is not just based on surface air temps. More involved... Weather patterns have more to do with currents in the ocean and oceanic temperature change than air temps...

up sh*t creek without it. No secondary water supply.

I was amazed at how low key the news about this was. They mentioned it a lot. But no one seemed all that concerned. The newscaster was as laconic as ever reporting that in 90 days they will have NO FUCKING WATER. I mean ..... jeeez. Can't someone show some concern?

The subplot was the many water main breaks. And how after citizens report them, the city shows up ..... a WEEK later.

Why was unrequested water served to me at every restaurant meal I ate? Why were my room towels changed daily? Many other hotels in other cities offer you the option to save the towels for use the next day and avoid the water used to launder them.

If I were the mayor of Atlanta, my hair would be on fire.

I remember telling them how important it was to be politically active and aware. They just rolled their eyes and said, But nothing EVER changes! It doesn't matter who's president, life will always be the same!

It's as if in Atlanta they just feel like Things Will Be Taken Care Of, just as they've always been.

I sure hope so. I would think that would be the first step in a drought- stop watering lawns, golf course and cut off water to car washes. And mandatory water use restrictions in homes. They could charge people more who use more water per capita.

of new developments' lawns.