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ARIDITY ON THE CANADIAN PLAINS: PAST RECORDS AND FUTURE FORECASTS (371 words) |
 | The Canadian GCM forecasts the least increase in precipitation and the largest increase in temperature and therefore an approximately 50% increase in the area of subhumid climate and a significant area of semiarid climate by the 2050s. |
| The climate of the 20th century was anomalous in terms of the absence of sustained drought and the climate normal period of 1961-1990 may have been among the most benign of the past 750 years. |
| Because both lake and tree-ring analyses recorded an abrupt amelioration of climatic conditions near the start of the instrumental record, we suggest that the immediate impacts of future global warming may be to return the prairie environment to past conditions in which persistent aridity was recorded for intervals of decades or longer. |
| Water Resources eAtlas - Watersheds of the World (696 words) |
| Six aridity zones are delineated based on the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration (PET). |
| Additional aridity zones include hyperarid environments where ratios are less than 0.05 and humid areas where ratios are greater then 0.65. |
| This map is based on an aridity index derived from the ratio of mean annual precipitation to the mean annual potential evapotranspiration. |
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