Patterns of drought and deluge are common throughout history, but human-driven climate change is disrupting these cycles, making it more difficult to predict exactly how the current megadought in south-western North America will end
An abandoned pomegranate orchard during a drought
Getty Images/Bloomberg Creative/ David Paul Morris
The current drought began when Kent Norman was just 2 years old. Farming is in his blood. His family has worked the land in Stockton, California, for generations. But the last two decades have created one of the most severe droughts in the region history: Over the course of his life, south-western North America has become drier than it has been in more than 1000 years.
Megadrought in North America
This story is part of our Parched Earth series about the ongoing megadrought …