New paper finds extreme droughts were more common 200-300 years ago — ‘Reconstructed drought conditions of American Southeast from 1665 to 2010’
'The reconstruction shows that the recent droughts are not unprecedented over the last 346 years. Indeed, droughts of extended duration occurred more frequently between 1696 and 1820. Our results indicate that the era in which local and state water supply decisions were developed and the period of instrumental data upon which it is based are amongst the wettest since at least 1665'
