ratbastid

So, I'm confused about the state of the environment. This isn't a Global Warming thread, or at least, not directly. It's more a Conservation of Mass thread.

Everywhere I hear about is under severe drought. Here in the Southeast, we've had a very unusually dry year. The technical term for our drought level is "exceptional", which is one step past "extreme". I know it's that way in the Midwest and Southwest too.

Today I read about Australia, which has been in severe drought for six years. Seems like everywhere you hear about the weather, there's drought.

Now, I've always understood that the water cycle is Earthbound--that no water ever LEAVES our planet. So the question is: Where IS all the water? Have ocean levels risen enough to account for the missing H2O? Are there places that are having floods and monsoons? Have aliens abducted our agua? What's going ON here?

Zar

According to this it seems that climate change is causing less precipitation in subtropical areas (U.S., Australia, etc.) and more precipitation in equatorial tropical areas. This is a trend that is expected to continue.

Wikipedia rocks my face.

Charlatan

Lot's of rain here on the equator. Sometimes it seems like it never stops.

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Baraka_Guru

It has been noted that the levels of the Great Lakes is dropping.

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aberkok

Judging by the taste lately, you'd think it was in the drinks at the local pub... hey-ooooo!

Sorry.

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Baraka_Guru

Wocka, wocka, wocka!

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jen71au

It is the same old story, some countries have too much, and others have too little.

Wouldn't surprise me if there is a war over water at some stage.

Here in Australia we have already had countless assaults and at least one murder, because someone was watering their garden.

It will only get tougher. For now at least.

Charlatan

It is only a matter of time before someone invades Canada for its water and oil...

Oh right, we already sold out for the oil... how long before we make the same bone-headed move with our water?

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Elphaba

You can find all the missing water in Washington and Oregon, where it all fell within two days last week. We're still digging out of the mess.

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snowy

Yes, we've had all the water, but it's not the usual dismals. We've been getting pounded with several inches of rain at a time, which is an insane amount for even the PacNW. The ground can't hold it all, especially the clay soil of the Willamette Valley, and we've been having problems with flooding and slides here.

It's not as bad as it was two years ago, when we had a similar storm, with similar flooding issues. My town became an island during that storm. We got off easy this time, but I have a feeling that it's really just the beginning of something far worse.

What will really suck is if another big storm comes through while everything is still soggy. The wind will uproot the trees and the additional rains will cause flooding. Heck, even some mild weather today (mild by comparison to last week, which closed I-5) caused a mud slide that closed one of the main highways between Portland and the Oregon coast. Right now it's dry and cold, but all that's doing is keeping the water in the ground, frozen. When it warms up and starts raining again, that water will still be there, and the new water will have nowhere to go. We will likely lose power if a bad windstorm comes through because of the trees being in soggy ground. I'm not looking forward to the coming weeks, weather-wise. It does not look good.

I wish I could send some to the Southeast, really I do.

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Crack

We need to take over Canada asap. I want a free moose.

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Redlemon

I want their national anthem. It sounds much better than ours, and you can simply drop in "A-mer-ica" in for "O Can-ada".

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ottopilot

It's been raining like crazy for well over a month in north-central Kentucky.

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Daniel_

World warms up.

Air warms up.

Water warms up.

Warm water evaporates faster.

Warm air holds more water vapour per cubic metre.

Warm atmosphere makes wind velocities higher.

Faster winds draw air flow towards the poles.

Cold air near poles causes water to fall as precipitation.

So - in essence, the water is up in the air, and can't fall on the tropics because it's falling near the poles - that's why the UK and northern Europe have had record floods, and some places have had record droughts.

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Ustwo

There was a time on this planet when humans did not exist in our current forms. We did not produce CO2, our animals did not produce CH4, and yet, things went through cycles of warming, cooling, icing over, and all that.

Perhaps the solution to the question would be to look at say Australia's history instead of anecdotal 'well its really wet here' and 'its been dry here' as somehow proof of climate changes.

To this I turned to the powers of google, being I am not an Austrialian weather expert.

This was the first result.

http://www.bom.gov.au/lam/climate/le...hc/drought.htm
Climate issues are the current media shark attacks of 2001. In 2001 shark attacks were 'the news' that summer, it was considered a major safety issue by typical Americans, and yet, there were less attacks that year than previous years.

Now every time it rains a bit more, it snows a bit less, it snows a bit more, it rains a bit less, its warm in October, is cold in June, someone mentions 'climate change' as a reason as if that said something valid.

The climate does change, it always changes, as continents continue to drift, as volcanoes erupt or not, as solar energy reaches the earth or doesn't as eccentricities in the earths orbit tilts it slightly one way or another, the climate changes.

Sometimes those changes are due to mundane 'nature' reasons and there is no reason to think that current droughts are any different than the past ones.

From what I gather, there has been no real increase in sea level due to ice melt at this time.

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ratbastid

I understand. That wasn't at all my question. Nice to know I can still make your knee jerk, though.

Ustwo

If you understood you shouldn't have asked the question.

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ratbastid

You're answering a question that's different from the one I asked.

What I asked was: If the places you hear about are in drought, where's the water?

What you answered was: Is there something unique about the drought we're hearing about?

See the difference?

Leto

SHHHH! don't remind them about our water....

Ustwo

As a representative of the true shadow government of the United States of America and Guam, I assure you we have no intentions of invading Canada for water.

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thebeat

Thankfully there is no less water in the world than there was millions of years ago, it's all about the water cycle, and sometimes it just doesn't fall in the right places

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Luke Cage

I would vote in favor of invading Canada if only to find Alan Thicke and nueter him so he never makes another Robin Thicke.

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Seaver

You forgot Poland.

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MSD

It's one of the big factors in the dispute over the West Bank.
Moose are like deer but ugly, and instead of just destroying your car they kill you when you hit them. They can keep their damn moose.

spindles

Well, it is absolutely pissing down here atm - so the answer to the original question is.....HERE!

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yellowmac

Technically, this isn't true. A tiny amount leaves when water vapor near the top of the atmosphere is exposed to UV radiation and dissociates. However, I think the rate at this is happening is dwarfed by the amount of water vapor that is put in to the atmosphere by volcanic eruptions.

Eventually, in billions of years, as the Sun gets brighter and heats up the Earth, more water vapor evaporates, which further heats up the Earth (water vapor is a greenhouse gas), and so on, and so on. This is a runaway greenhouse effect and would lead to the evaporation of the oceans.

For now, though, whereever you have severe droughts somewhere, that would be balanced by severe precipitation elsewhere. Keep in mind that 70% of the Earth is ocean, there could be record rains somewhere that we just can't directly measure/observe.

fresnelly

I've got to cut down on the internet porn because I read that sentence way wrong.

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Brewer

Locked up in the millions of half drunk water bottles occupying landfills worldwide...