http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/extreme-weather-and-drought-are-here-to-stay.html?hp

By many measurements, this summer’s drought is one for the record
books. But so was last year’s drought in the South Central states. And it has
been only a decade since an extreme five-year drought hit the American West.
Widespread annual droughts, once a rare calamity, have become more frequent and
are set to become the “new normal.”

Until recently, many scientists spoke of climate change mainly as a “threat,”
sometime in the future. But it is increasingly clear that we already live in the
era of human-induced climate change, with a growing frequency of weather and
climate extremes like heat waves, droughts, floods and fires.

Future precipitation trends, based on climate model projections for the coming
fifth assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, indicate
that droughts of this length and severity will be commonplace through the end of
the century unless human-induced carbon emissions are significantly reduced.
Indeed, assuming business as usual, each of the next 80 years in the American
West is expected to see less rainfall than the average of the five years of the
drought that hit the region from 2000 to 2004.

There seems to be plenty of water here in the northwest. The corn
and potatoes are looking good (as they take the water that used to go to the
Salmon).

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/08/12/2228519/enough-water-for-a-thirsty-valley.html