Global warming and rain

[MariaAZ]

A few months back, I saw a map on a TV program that showed how the agricultural areas of the US might change with global warming. I've tried to find that map because I caught the tail end of the story but haven't found it.

What are the thoughts about changing precipitation? Here in the desert Southwest, we've been experiencing drought for many, many years. Are there any areas that are projected to get adequate rainfall (no deluges though!) After something like 10 years of lower than usual rainfall (and it's not like we usually get a lot anyways, something around 8"), I'm ready for some green.

[Christiaan]

Global warming means trouble for us in the Pacific Northwest. While we may actually get more rain than we already have (enough already with the rain) less of it will be in the form of snow. This is not good as we actually depend on the snow pack to keep us in water through the summer months. This is going to have a huge impact on agriculture in Eastern Washington. It will just make us on the Wetside grumpier than ever.
The coastal waters are also warming up very rapidly and no one knows what the long range effects of that will be. A species of squid normally found off of Baja California has been found as far north as the Straits of Georgia (off of British Columbia).
We are definitely in for interesting times.

[wyld thang]

anyplace you have mountains by the coast (northern CA, Oregon, Washington, BC). It's kind of a "law of earth mechanics"--water rises form the ocean and has to come down somewhere, the mountains pull it down.

Just don't complain there's TOO MUCH rain! Here in my neck of Oregon Coast Range, we average I think around 75"-80" a year. It falls mostly winterish, but we had a wet July this year. We're supposedly due for a wetter and colder winter this year, I think the weathermen have declared it a la Nina. At my elevation(1000') the past 7 years we've gotten a few snow dumps each winter of about 12-18"(but there's not snow on the ground all winter, the snow just lasts for a week or two). The snow dump of 96 (year of floods in Willamette valley)here was 36" ! I'd love to see that! Needless to say we are prepared to hole up during the winter and do without power(last winter it was off for a week). Sometimes the ice or deep snow keeps us housebound. Sometimes a neighbor who farms in the valley keeps his big scraper at home and he ploughs the road. Anyways, I love the rain, and being on an exposed ridge we get the full force of winter storms and I love those too!! Kinda like a baby hurricane without the storm surge(although they get those on the coast).

Being on a ridge, we are blessed with a reliable well, even if it's really rusty. There is an off the grid house near us(who went on the grid because they had two babies ;0) that had adequate rainwater collection, including for garden.

[wyld thang]

Ha, I see I contradicted Christaan a bit. The bit about la Nina was on the local news, coastal water temps are a few degrees colder now out in the Pacific. Yes, less snowpack affects people in the big group sense(like how much water to support a population). But I was just sharing my on the ground thoughts, here in my spot, in which case the water situation is pretty good(unless they build a subdivision up here--at least we're not zoned for that density!)