article_snippet.sent: A mysterious ‘warm blob’ of water off the West coast of the US could explain why states like California are experiencing states like California worst ever drought, while the East is battered by freezing weather.
article_snippet.sent: Since the year 2000, seven western states in the US has seen seven western states in the US driest periods in centuries: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
article_snippet.sent: And scientists in California have warned that the region may be experiencing a century-long 'mega-drought'.
article_snippet.sent: The warnings came after sediment studies showed California is currently experiencing the driest spell since 1580, and that the regular rainfall seen during the last century is likely to have been a temporary deviation in a cycle of droughts and very occasional rainfall over the last 3,000 years.
article_snippet.sent: In 2013, California received less rain than in any year since California formation as a state in 1850.
article_snippet.sent: However droughts lasting more than 100 years are far from unheard of in California.
article_snippet.sent: Looking back over several thousand years, droughts have been known to last over a decade, and in some cases some cases can last a century.
article_snippet.sent: And the patterns tend to repeat, meaning another drought of this length will probably happen again in the future.
article_snippet.sent: As air passes over warmer water and reaches the coast the coast brings more heat and less snow, which the scientists say helped cause current drought conditions in California, Oregon and Washington.
article_snippet.sent: it could also be playing a part in circulating cold and wet air to the central and eastern states of the US.
article_snippet.sent: California's drought (stock image shown left) is one of the worst on record, while the coast of the US (Central Park in New York shown right) has seen unusually cold temperatures .