One thing that you're missing is that in the western United States, most of the water that's used during the summer dry season fell as snow on the mountains during the winter and spring. If the climate warms there will be a water shortage even if there is just as much precipitation as there was previously--if more of it is falling as rain instead of snow. That's because snow that falls becomes snow pack (and even contributes to some mountain glaciers) and will melt throughout the year, replenishing reservoirs. The same is NOT TRUE of rain--that's because there is not nearly enough reservoir capacity to store the water from the winter wet season to the summer and fall dry seasons.Runoff from winter rains will bypass reservoirs and flow into the ocean.

A major influence will be the need for water storage. Much of what used to be mountain snow, which conveniently stores itself on mountain slopes for months at a time, now falls as rain instead. It takes about twice as much reservoir capacity to smooth out flooding and provide agricultural water when your precipitation comes as rain rather than snow.

In theory climate change/global warming means more evaporation and more precipitation, however local conditions could alter, precipitation that falls as snow may be more beneficial, as the spring melt supplies water when it's most needed.

Please watch the video with Allan Savory at the link below. Overgrazing was considered to be a cause of desertification, but when livestock are managed correctly, they can be the solution to reclaiming land that is eroding, stretching the limited rainfall and becoming a watershed that preserves available water instead of allowing it to runoff.

Edit: A study of water vapor showed that it is diminished when average temperature goes up, but a reanalysis of the same data says that water vapor increases (ever-so-slightly, however the people who did that study could re-analyze daytime and prove it is night). Jumping to conclusions, "logical" trains of sequence and false assumptions are rife in the twilight zone of climatology, especially that branch that is clouded by militant environmentalizm.

A watershed is invaluable in the process of water cycle. Prairie grass is a great watershed. It absorbs downpours. Mountain forests are another great watershed. It prevents erosion and preserves some of the snow-melt runoff, metering the water for continuous release throughout dry summers.

Snow pack is interesting, and provides temporary reservoir, but is totally dependent on weather. Lakes are nature's storage bodies for runoff, and man made reservoirs can be managed to moderate runoff. If politicians get involved, reservoirs can lead to disastrous flooding, as in Brisbane with the mismanagement of the Wivenhoe Dam during their summer storms of January 2011. Politicians set the level of the reservoir too high in anticipation of water shortages (sympathetically, only three years earlier their reservoir was down to 17 percent), but that was not justification for being overly prudent and causing a flood downstream when it could have been prevented if the reservoir had sufficient reserve capacity.

1. Less rainfall in some places.

2. Drying and hardening of ground in those same place so that water runs off when it rains rather than being absorbed by the soil.

3. Earlier spring -- i.e., earlier snow melt and late spring rains rather than snow, causes snow-pack to melt-off before end of summer causing late summer water shortages in places that depend on snow-pack for water storage (e.g. California)

Anyone with any knowledge of 'more rainfall' will know that the resultant flooding will result in fresh water resources being contaminated. just as is usual during times of flooding.

http://healthvermont.gov/enviro/water/fl...

Finally something for solar PV panels to do that they actually do better than any other energy source....condense atmospheric water.

more water because more people pissing in the sea

more water supply from all the snow we've been getting

This is a four mark question for my geography homework.

My answer so far...

One of the effects of climate change is that it reduces the amount of rain fall in some parts; this is very bad for places like the US as water is already naturally scarce, as they depend on irrigations from the Colorado River. This could cause severe drought conditions.

Am i doing this right?

What is the other affect?