University Of Montana Study - Warming Likely To Enhance Droughts, Boost Fires In Rocky Mountain West

EDIT

Here are highlights of the research, straight from the UM statement:

-- By about the 2080s, hotter temperatures could cause about two months of additional drought.

-- Regional forests will see fewer days with snow on the ground, an earlier peak snowmelt, a longer growing season, and increasing drought stress, which in turn will increase insect infestations and wildfires.

-- Carbon uptake could be reduced and so disrupted that “most forests in the region would switch from absorbing carbon to releasing it by late this century.”

-- Even if future climate change is less severe than projected, serious impacts are expected. Forests are already being transformed by global warming, Running said, particularly since northern Rocky Mountains forests “live in a perpetually water-limited state.”

-- Over this century, the region could see an annual average warming trend of 3.6 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit, with winter temperatures expected to increase more than temps in other seasons.

EDIT

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/long_drought_ahead_from_global_warming_study_says/C41/L41/