Projected Precip By The End of the Century - West Hemi MAP

In Plain English extreme drought in the USA will be progressing northward and areas like the Southwest will be impossible to live in. Some areas that show darkest blue like the Mid-Atlantic, increased precip includes heavy snows from more powerful Noreaster's. It seems that Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and northernmost New England might be the best choices in the near future. This map is based on moderate changes, NOT a worst case scenario that is looking more likely due to our ignorance!

Based on NOAA public-domain source: This world map shows the change in annual average precipitation projected by the GFDL CM2.1 model for the 21st century. The change is in response to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols based on a "middle of the road" estimate of future emissions. Future
emissions are based on the "A1B" emissions scenario, taken from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios.
For the "A1B" emissions scenario, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are
projected to increase from 370 to 717 ppm. The plotted precipitation
differences were computed as the difference between the 2081 to 2100
twenty year average minus the 1951 to 2000 fifty year average. Blue
areas are projected to see an increase in annual precipitation amounts.
Brown areas are projected to receive less precipitation in the future.
(Note the irregular color bar intervals.)

Click Map To Enlarge




Warming
of the global climate is expected to be accompanied by a reduction in
rainfall in the subtropics and an increase in precipitation in subpolar
latitudes and some equatorial regions. This pattern can be described in
broad terms as the wet getting wetter and the dry getting drier, since
subtropical land regions are mostly semi-arid today, while most subpolar
regions currently have an excess of precipitation over evaporation.
Though clearly a feature of a warming global climate, this
characterization of the changing precipitation pattern cannot be applied
to every locale, but should instead be thought of as a large-scale
tendency that can be modified by local conditions in some cases. As seen
in the map below, the drying is projected to be strongest near the
poleward margins of the subtropics (for example, South Africa, southern
Australia, the Mediterranean, and the south-western U.S.), a pattern
that can be described as a poleward expansion of these semi-arid zones.

This large-scale pattern of change is a robust feature present in nearly
all of the simulations conducted by the world's climate modeling groups
for the 4th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), including those conducted at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
Laboratory (GFDL). It is also evident in observed 20th century
precipitation trends.

In the map, changes are measured in inches of liquid water per year,
ranging from +60 to -60. As described above, changes are not uniform
globally. Most areas which see increases in precipitation are in the
range of +1 to +30. Most areas which see decreases are in the range of
-1 to -45.