Global warming didn't cause the historic drought that covered nearly two-thirds of the country last year, a new study by scientists from several federal agencies found.
Instead, the drought was caused by "natural variations in weather," the study concluded.
"Neither ocean states nor human-induced climate change, factors that can provide long-lead predictability, appeared to play significant roles in causing severe rainfall deficits over the major corn producing regions of central Great Plains," wrote lead author Martin Hoerling, a research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The unpredictably dry summer was caused by a lack of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, which usually carries water vapor north to the Central Plains states, the researchers said. Because the jet stream that pushes up the moisture was stuck in Canada, it failed to bring the spring rain and summer storms that water the middle of the country...
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