Megadrought (Bend, Pendleton: 2014, relocating to, areas)

[timberledge]

The national media frequently these days addresses the so-called megadrought out west. Yesterday's cover of USA Today, for example. Usually the stories focus on California but they often make sweeping references to the west generally. I'm wondering about the application of this to Bend and Central Oregon. Do folks on this Forum see this as the achilles heel of Bend's growth or is the climate/weather pattern perceived as different or better in Central Oregon than in the areas of the west that are further south? I'm aware that forest fires are common in the Bend area and certainly it was bad in the NW this summer. There's a certain sense of doom in the articles I've seen on the western drought. Should the Bend area not be lumped into that? Thanks for any thoughts.

[BendLocal]

California is an entirely different beast of a water problem.

Red Flag warnings are a serious issue for Central Oregon though.

National Weather Service Watch Warning Advisory Summary

URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PENDLETON OR
108 PM PDT THU SEP 4 2014

...EAST WINDS WITH LOW HUMIDITIES FRIDAY AFTERNOON AND EARLY
EVENING ALONG THE EAST SLOPES OF THE CASCADES AND THE DESCHUTES
NATIONAL FOREST...

[kapetrich]

This thread is along similar lines: Long Term Water Outlook?

Like BendLocal said, Californian is a different beast, but drought is an issue in many places east of the Mississippi River, including Oregon:


Source: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

Originally Posted by timberledge

The national media frequently these days addresses the so-called megadrought out west. Yesterday's cover of USA Today, for example. Usually the stories focus on California but they often make sweeping references to the west generally.

I feel that, as an east coaster originally, reference to "The West Coast" in national stories is often code word for California back home. Makes sense. It's a HUGE state spanning the majority of the USAs Pacific seaboard.

[timberledge]

Thanks for the data/info and the reference to the water-related thread from earlier this year. Not sure how I missed that. Parsing the many posts on the earlier thread it appears there's significant unease about the issue but also some confidence that Bend is better situated than most other areas of the west. It doesn't seem like water shortage is a reason to avoid Bend, for the many who follow this Forum with a strong interest in relocating to Bend.

[JimH2]

For those that like to look at charts and graphs, the Northwest Climate Change references speak to possible impacts from climate change.

http://occri.net/wp-content/uploads/...eNorthwest.pdf

Climate of Oregon | Oregon Climate Change Research Institute

[whirnot]

Just remember those charts are definitely fluid. The chart shows Colorado in pretty good shape, but this is the first year out of the last 15 that was that way. things change fast and often....