California: the mother of all droughts – 1140-1320

The AGW hysteria is a wonderful excuse to sell us the modern equivalent of papal dispensations, without even avoiding eternal damnation.

However, one should consider that the history of California is closely tied to the history of droughts and changing snowfall patterns varying from year to year. According to Scott Stine, a professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State East Bay: “We’re living in a dream world. The longest droughts of the 20th century in which Californians think of as severe, occurred from 1987 to 1992 and from 1928 to 1934.” Both, Stine said, are minor compared to the ancient droughts of 850 to 1090 and 1140 to 1320.

Through studies of tree rings, sediment, and other natural evidence, researchers assert that California has had multiple droughts that lasted 10 or 20 years in a row during the past 1,000 years. The mere three-year duration of the current dry spell doesn’t come close to California’s driest periods.

Stine, who has spent decades studying tree stumps in Mono Lake, Tenaya Lake, the Walker River, and other parts of the Sierra Nevada, said that the past century has been among the wettest of the last 7,000 years. ”The two most severe mega-droughts make theDust Bowl of the 1930s look tame: a 240-year-long drought that started in 850 and, 50 years after the conclusion of that one, another that stretched at least 180 years,” according to the professor.