Between October 2011 and September 2015, California saw its driest four-year period in the instrumental record, which dates back to 1895. Parts of the state lost more than two full years of precipitation during the prolonged, severe dry spell. But, a new study by NOAA NCEI scientists (link is external) suggests that from the longer-term view of paleoclimate records, the southern Central Valley and South Coast parts of the state saw their worst dry spell in nearly 450 years.
Between October 2011 and September 2015, California saw its driest four-year period in the instrumental record, which dates back to 1895. Parts of the state lost more than two full years of precipitation during the prolonged, severe dry spell. But, a new study by NOAA NCEI scientists (link is external) suggests that from the longer-term view of paleoclimate records, the southern Central Valley and South Coast parts of the state saw their worst dry spell in nearly 450 years.
Published in the Journal of Climate (link is external), this study also looked at how long it would take the state to recover from its current precipitation deficits. And, the scientists found that California’s hardest hit areas would likely need several decades for their long-term average precipitation to recover back to normal levels, starting from the 2012–2015 deficits. “The odds of the state completely recovering from its extreme dryness within two years are estimated at less than 1 percent,” said Dr. Eugene R. Wahl, NCEI paleoclimatologist and lead author of the study. “But, that may be what's happening right now if very wet conditions continue into spring.”
The extreme El Niño conditions between 2015 and 2016 helped jumpstart recovery in the northern half of the state. And, the scientists found that when very strong or extreme El Niño events followed a similar deep dryness, California’s full recovery time was nearly cut in half. The high amounts of precipitation California has received during the current wet season have already set the state up for a faster recovery time than 80 percent of similar events. If it continues to be an extremely wet year for the state, like fall 1982 through summer 1983, California would be looking at an even shorter recovery time.
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Photo via NOAA.
