From the article, it looks like precipitation has varied normally, but temperature has been increasing:
> Now, the researchers say, warming climate appears to be pushing the divide east. In the northern plains, rainfall has not changed much, but temperatures are going up, increasing evaporation from the soil. Further south, concurrent shifts in wind patterns are in fact causing less rain to fall. Either way, this tends to push western aridity eastward. Data collected since about 1980 suggests that the statistical divide between humid and arid has now shifted closer to the 98th meridian, some 140 miles east.
During the flood of ‘93 things got so bad there were college professors making allowances for people who wanted (or needed) to leave school and go bag sand along the Mississippi. Edit: this despite the peak of the flood happening weeks before fall semesters were due to start.
Typically the western part of the state (west of the 100th Meridian) is dry as a bone and in constant drought, while the eastern side is flush with water. Along the 100th we get both extremes.
I'm not well versed in that kind of thing, but doesn't "drought" just mean with respect to the average? In other words, what counts for a drought in western Oregon is different from a drought in southern Arizona, right?
If rainfall is normally distributed, then this outcome is expected anywhere. Are you trying to say that the average (34") is near the threshold for feast/famine?
If you'd like to read more about this, I recommend John Wesley Powell's biography: "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West" https://amzn.to/2H2v7oZ
What is it about the climate change weather patterns that's pushing the line East? It's not like the Rockies have gotten taller. That is, a storm moving east is depleted when it hits the Rockies. That leaves a desert to the East. Are there less storms? Faster moving storms? Both?
"In the northern plains, rainfall has not changed much, but temperatures are going up, increasing evaporation from the soil. Further south, concurrent shifts in wind patterns are in fact causing less rain to fall. Either way, this tends to push western aridity eastward." - the linked article
The 100th Meridian coincides almost exactly with the western edge of the Gulf of Mexico. If I understand correctly, moisture comes up from the south, not just from the Rockies. If the wind pattern changes so that more air comes from the west and less from the south, that moisture flow is reduced.
As soon as I saw the headline, I knew I couldn't let a reference to my favourite band go unmentioned. It is almost criminal how underappreciated the Tragically Hip are as a band.
Driving down a corduroy road,
Weeds standing shoulder high
Ferris wheel is rusting off in the distance
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
Where the great plains begin
Here's a nice graph from OWRB (old 2011 data but still shows the swings): https://i.imgur.com/vLA1hAk.png
Source: (slow loading) http://www.owrb.ok.gov/supply/drought/pdf_dro/DroughtFactShe...
It's on page 2.