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Originally published in Science Express on 7 October 2004
Science 5 November 2004:
Vol. 306. no. 5698, pp. 1015 - 1018
DOI: 10.1126/science.1102586
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Reports

Long-Term Aridity Changes in the Western United States

Edward R. Cook,1* Connie A. Woodhouse,2 C. Mark Eakin,2 David M. Meko,3 David W. Stahle4

The western United States is experiencing a severe multiyear drought that is unprecedented in some hydroclimatic records. Using gridded drought reconstructions that cover most of the western United States over the past 1200 years, we show that this drought pales in comparison to an earlier period of elevated aridity and epic drought in AD 900 to 1300, an interval broadly consistent with the Medieval Warm Period. If elevated aridity in the western United States is a natural response to climate warming, then any trend toward warmer temperatures in the future could lead to a serious long-term increase in aridity over western North America.

1 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
2 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Climatic Data Center, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.
3 Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
4 Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: drdendro{at}ldeo.columbia.edu

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