why is California always in a drought crisis, but landlocked states in the Midwest are not?
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California is no longer in drought in 80% of the state, and what parts are, namely the north east and south east, are in the two lowest category of drought
For the same reason Antarctica is considered a desert even though it’s below freezing a majority of the time.
[California is dry.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_California?wprov=sfla1)
Less-than-average rainfall per year increases the demand for water, which is needed in the event of wildfires, which occur fairly frequently and can be difficult or impossible to contain. Less rainfall leads to dry forests, which are extremely flammable.
Landlocked states typically get more rain than California.
The youtube channel Real Life Lore has a [great video](https://youtu.be/wwJABxjcvUc) discussing why water is much more plentiful in the Eastern US vs the West.
Because saltwater doesn’t help stop a drought. You need freshwater.
The fact that California has a lot of seawater coast doesn’t mean anything. Saudi Arabia has a lot of seawater coast and it’s almost all desert.
Rain brings in new freshwater. It falls from the sky and some of it runs along the surface as rivers and lakes while the rest of it soaks into the ground where it becomes aquifers for wells to tap into. Some of it evaporates but if the air is either not very hot or not very dry that evaporation doesn’t happen as much.
The same thing that makes California such a popular place for humans (“Welcome to sunny California where it’s always warm and dry and doesn’t rain so much”) also makes it a terrible place for humans (“Oh, wait, you wanted to drink something and plant some crops? Well, then why did you go somewhere where it’s always sunny, warm, and dry? What were you thinking?”).
California does have a LOT of profitable agricultural business, but to make that happen requires irrigation to offset the low level of rain, which consumes a lot of what limited water there is, increasing the drought problem by doing so. As to why people do this? (Why put farms in a dry place that requires irrigation?) – that’s because having a lot of sunny days in a place that doesn’t freeze in winter makes for a great crop yield if you can just artificially give the land more water than it would naturally have. This amounts to more profit than putting your farm in a more traditional location where you have to compromise between sunny and rainy with a little of both. (That’s why the midwest that you mention is where traditionally a lot of farming is done because it has an excellent compromise between the two which is about the best balance you can naturally get without artificial changes such as California uses.)
The youtube channel Real Life Lore has a [great video](https://youtu.be/wwJABxjcvUc) discussing why water is much more plentiful in the Eastern US vs the West.
Hello ? California is essentially a dessert and we typically get very little rain
Hello ? California is essentially a dessert and we typically get very little rain
Hello ? California is essentially a dessert and we typically get very little rain
California is sandwiched between an ocean and the largest desert in North America. It gets inconsistent rainfall and experiences long stochastic droughts. The Midwest is surrounded by the largest consolidated freshwater lakes in the world and gets reasonably high consistent average rainfall.
California is sandwiched between an ocean and the largest desert in North America. It gets inconsistent rainfall and experiences long stochastic droughts. The Midwest is surrounded by the largest consolidated freshwater lakes in the world and gets reasonably high consistent average rainfall.
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