Colorado River streamflow history reveals megadrought before 1490

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Christopher Baisan of The University of Arizonas Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research examines a cross-section of wood hes just removed from a dead Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in a canyon near Price Utah. Analysis later showed that the tree had s ...
Christopher Baisan of The University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research examines a cross-section of wood he's just removed from a dead Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in a canyon near Price, Utah. Analysis later showed that the tree had started life around A.D. 960, lived through the epic drought of the 1100s and died in about 1421. Credit: David M. Meko, The University of Arizona

An epic drought during the mid-1100s dwarfs any drought previously documented for a region that includes areas of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The six-decade-long drought was remarkable for the absence of very wet years. At the core of the drought was a period of 25 years in which Colorado River flow averaged 15 percent below normal.


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