Climate change appears to have driven an ongoing 25-year shortfall in winter rains and mountain snows across the U.S. Southwest, worsening a regional water crisis that’s also related to hotter temperatures and growing demand. Multiple studies now suggest that human-caused climate change is boosting an atmospheric pattern in the North Pacific that favors unusually low winter precipitation across the Southwest. … A study published in Nature on Wednesday, August 13, finds that emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases and tiny sun-blocking particles called aerosols have driven long-term PDO [Pacific Decadal Oscillation] changes over the last few decades, depriving the Southwest of much-needed winter rain and snow.

Other drought, rain and snow news around the West:

• San Francisco Chronicle: An atmospheric river is approaching. Here’s when rain could hit the drought-plagued West
• Post Independent (Glenwood Springs, Colo.): Will Colorado see a snowy winter? Early forecasts suggest mixed outcomes
• The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah): How much snow can Utah skiers expect for the 2025-26 season? You may want to brace yourself.
• New Scientist: Pacific Ocean changes may ‘lock in’ US megadrought for decades
• The Conversation: Blog: Climate models reveal how human activity may be locking the Southwest into permanent drought