So here’s the good news: Despite fears to the contrary, California isn’t facing a year-round drought in our warming new world.
So here’s the good news: Despite fears to the contrary, California isn’t facing a year-round drought in our warming new world.
However, UC Riverside Earth Sciences Professor Robert Allen’s research indicates that what precipitation the state does get will be pretty much limited to the winter months — think deluge-type rainfall rather than snow — and non-winter months will be even dryer than usual, with little or no rain at all.
“It is good news,” Allen said. “But only relative to the alternative of no rain at all.”
Allen’s latest findings build on his 2017 research that concluded global warming will bring increased winter precipitation to California through the end of this century.
The findings are outlined in a paper by Allen and his co-author Ray Anderson, research soil scientist at the USDA-ARS US Salinity Lab, titled “21st century California drought risk linked to model fidelity of the El Niño teleconnection.” It was published September 3 in Nature Partner Journals: Climate and Atmospheric Science.
Read more at University of California – Riverside
Photo: The 2017 California floods might be a sign of things to come. A UC Riverside study indicates that California can expect more intensive winter rains. CREDIT: California Department of Water Resources
