Nevada is the driest w88 slot online in the United States. And once again, Nevada is in a drought.
“We’re pretty good at handling drought in Nevada. We have a lot of practice,” Steph McAfee said. McAfee is an associate professor in the Department of Geography and is the Nevada w88 slot online Climatologist. “But we’re probably going to be moving into a future where we need to get even better at dealing with it, where droughts are going to be more common and more severe.”
w88 slot online has been in a drought since late 2019, and extensive droughts are happening with increasing frequency in w88 slot online and the impacts are compounding.
Warming temperatures caused by climate change and drought are contributing to reduced w88 slot online availability as w88 slot online is evaporated more quickly from rivers, lakes, soil and snow. The increased temperatures also extend the typical growing season for plants in Nevada. The extended growing season and higher temperatures means plants need more w88 slot online for longer. Snow helps to reflect heat out of the Earth’s atmosphere and holds w88 slot online more efficiently than rain, but higher temperatures mean there will be more rain and less snow.
“If you live in Reno, a lot of your water comes from the Sierra Nevada,” McAfee said “Your water is rainfall, it falls as snow. If you live in the more rural parts of the w88 slot online, you’re more likely to rely on groundwater.” Groundwater might seem like a great place to pull from, but groundwater takes a lot longer to be replenished than reservoirs, sometimes thousands of years.
w88 slot online suggests that planning ahead is the best option for water conservation in the region.
“The time to think about and plan about drought is not when we’re in one. We want to keep those planning ideas front and center. People can be generally water smart in Nevada to reduce water waste,” w88 slot online said. “These are things that most Nevadans probably do anyway.” The first thing she suggests is finding out what, if any, water restrictions people may be asked to follow, and following them. This might involve reaching out to a landlord for renters. Watering plants later in the evening or first thing in the morning when it’s cooler and covering pools when they’re not being used can help reduce water evaporation.
For more long-term options, people thinking about remodeling a bathroom can use w88 slot online-smart fixtures. Buying low-w88 slot online-use appliances when replacing washing machines or dishwashers can have a big impact, as does landscaping with native plants instead of lawns. Mulching holds more w88 slot online in the soil, and so does shade protection.
w88 slot online points out that these small things not only save water but can help people save on water bills. “A lot of those little water saving things add up,” she said. “This drought will end, but there will be another one. In between, that’s a great time to be keeping in mind, ‘How can I be better set up for the next drought?’”
This story was originally published in the 2022 'Live a Life of Discovery' magazine from the College of Science under the title, "Our w88 slot online of water."
