California’s bout of extreme wet weather could become the new normal as climate change worsens, a researcher has warned.
A bomb cyclone battered the state on Tuesday, bringing down trees and power lines. At least one person was killed after a tree fell onto a vehicle, the Los Angeles Times reported. Early on Wednesday, more than 130,000 customers were still without power, according to PowerOutage.us.
Even on the heels of an unusual winter of intense rain, wind and snow, the storm that slammed California on Tuesday came with some surprising conditions.
The storm was marked by powerful winds in the Bay Area and other parts of Central and Northern California that downed trees, created treacherous commuting conditions, broke windows in downtown San Francisco and caused power outages.
Extreme storms like the massive bomb cyclone that drenched the San Francisco Bay Area last October are likely to become more powerful in the coming decades as climate change alters atmospheric conditions.
The Bay Area could see between 26% and 37% more water from these mega-storms by the end of the century, according to a new study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory commissioned by the city.
