"Hot Hands: Fingerprints of Climate Change All Over California Drought"

"California’s astonishingly low snowpack, a pathetic 5 percent of normal, and the severity of the drought afflicting the state isn’t some fluke.  It’s a likely consequence of climate change, specifically the rising temperatures which are intensifying many of the processes causing the state to lose water at an alarming rate.

To begin, let’s make clear climate change is best characterized as a drought amplifier rather than the cause of the drought itself.  The climate system has enormous natural variability and several studies and analyses have linked the drought to a randomly occurring configuration of Pacific Ocean temperatures that encourages atmospheric winds to steer weather systems away from the Golden State.

For three years strong, the atmosphere steering flow has hit a road block along the West Coast (dubbed the “ridiculously resilient ridge”), but connecting that to climate change has proven difficult."

Jason Samenow reports for the Washington Post April 2, 2015.

SEE ALSO:

"California Drought Is Worsened by Global Warming, Scientists Say" (New York Times)

"How One California Farmer Is Battling the Worst Drought in 1,200 Years" (Ensia/FERN)

"Epic California Drought Is Preview of Future Global Warming Mega-Droughts" (Mashable)

"Report: Climate Change Puts Valley at Risk" (Hanford Sentinel)

"NOAA: Climate Change Did Not Cause Calif. Drought" (Climate Central: 12/8/2015)