A new study out of the UCSD says that the Southwest region of the state of California is heading towards a trend of extreme weather.
The report is based on a July research study conducted by over a dozen climate researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
According to the evidence found in this study, there is enough data that suggests that the risk of potentially hazardous weather conditions in the region is increasing over time.
The authors of this study explain how this type of hazardous weather is initially formed with the following:
Extreme winter weather variability in California is largely driven by the interplay between onshore landfalling atmospheric rivers and offshore downslope winds that bring desiccating desert conditions often associated with coastal heat and sometimes spreading wildfire.
Kristen Guirguis, a climate researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, is the researcher who led the team for this study. She says that the enhanced hot Santa Ana winds are triggered by the weather patterns found in their research, and it could even affect the Southwest region when residents expect cold weather later in the year.
“This study suggests that weather patterns are changing in a way that enhances hot, dry Santa Ana winds, while reducing precipitation frequency in the Southwest,” said Guirguis. “These changes in atmospheric circulation are raising the risk of wildfires during California winters," she added.
Alexander Gershunov, a Scripps Oceanography climate scientist involved in this study, says the state will likely have to depend on atmospheric floodwater for water resource generation in times of hot climate.
“This spells challenges for wildfire and water resource management and provides observational support to our previous results projecting that California will increasingly have to depend on potentially hazardous atmospheric rivers and floodwater for water resource generation in a warming climate,” said study co-author Alexander Gershunov.
