Climate Change Archives

Unusually Warm Southern California Ocean Helps Break Temperature Records in San Diego

Sea-surface temperatures along the coast of Southern California have grown unusually warm in the last month, contributing to record-breaking temperatures and uncomfortable humidity in San Diego.

The ocean temperatures warmed from a hot weather pattern in place across California this summer, which vaulted the state to its warmest July on record. The hotter-than-average conditions are due to a persistent area of high pressure in the upper atmosphere.

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San Diego’s Daytime High Hits 80-or-Above Range for the 17th Straight Day

The daytime high in San Diego hit 83 degrees on Monday, the 17th straight day that the high was 80 or above, says the National Weather Service says.

And the same is likely to happen on Tuesday.

A high pressure system and unusually warm ocean temperatures are fueling the hot stretch, and there’s little relief in sight. Seasonal monsoonal moisture is expected to return on Wednesday and last until Friday. Thunderstorms are possible in the mountains.

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OPINION: California Plays a Leading, Effective Role in Confronting Climate Change

August 9, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Sacrqamento Beeby Carl Guardino

The fires raging across California are causing devastation on an unprecedented scale. Currently, 14,000 firefighters are battling 16 major fires, which have destroyed more than 2,000 homes and killed at least 10 people.

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California’s Destructive Summer Brings Blunt talk About Climate Change

August 5, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /Los Angeles Timesby Rong-Gong Lin II and Javier Panzar

At Scripps Pier in San Diego, the surface water reached the highest temperature in 102 years of records, 78.8 degrees. Palm Springs had its warmest July on record, with an average of 97.4 degrees. Death Valley experienced its hottest month on record, with the average temperature hitting 108.1. Park rangers said the heat was too much for some typically hardy birds that died in the broiling conditions. Across California, the nighttime brought little relief, recording the highest minimum temperature statewide of any month since 1895, rising to 64.9. California has been getting hotter for some time, but July was in a league of its own.

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How Is A Changing Climate Affecting California’s Way Of Life?

August 2, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /KCRA 3 (Sacramento, Calif.)

California’s natural beauty is facing tremendous challenges — a climate that is changing and a population that is growing fast and constantly demanding the most precious resource: water. “California needs a new tool to manage water for the next drought,” said Jim Watson, Sites Project Authority general manager. One of those new tools is the Sites Reservoir Project, which was just awarded $816 million in voter-approved state funding. Located about 90 miles north of Sacramento, the site of the new reservoir is just remote rangeland now, but when it’s completed in 12 years, it will store nearly twice as much water as Folsom Lake — enough to serve 4 million Californians each year.

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Satellite Image Captures The Unusual Warmth Of San Diego’s Coastal Waters

July 30, 2018/in Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

Sea surface temperatures in Southern California — especially spots in San Diego like Solana Beach — have been unusually warm for weeks. The National Weather Service issued a computer graphic late Monday that shows where the hottest temperatures are being recorded (the areas in red.) “Water temperatures from lifeguards are 72 to 78F and this is shown in satellite imagery depicting much above normal readings (anomaly) in the California Bight,” the weather service said on Facebook.

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A Changing Climate At Mono Lake Could Mean More Dust Storms In The Eastern Sierra — Or Less Water For L.A.

July 5, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagun

When dust storms began rising off the dry bed of Owens Lake, authorities in the Eastern Sierra blamed Los Angeles’ thirst. The city had, after all, drained the lake in the 1920s to serve its faucets. Now, as dust kicks up from Mono Lake, authorities in the Eastern Sierra are once again blaming that water-craving metropolis about 350 miles to the south.

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Warned 30 Years Ago, Global Warming ‘Is In Our Living Room’

June 19, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Associated Press by Seth Borenstein and Nicky Forster

On June 23, 1988, a sultry day in Washington, James Hansen told Congress and the world that global warming wasn’t approaching — it had already arrived. The testimony of the top NASA scientist, said Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, was “the opening salvo of the age of climate change.” Thirty years later, it’s clear that Hansen and other doomsayers were right. But the change has been so sweeping that it is easy to lose sight of effects large and small — some obvious, others less conspicuous.

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Forecast For California: More Frequent Wild Weather Swings

May 29, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Yale Climate Connections (New Haven, Conn.)by Bruce Lieberman

Many people are attracted to large parts of California for their reliably pleasant Mediterranean climate. It can be a welcome break for visitors weary of Nor’easters and scorching summers. But in coming decades, California and the rest of the West Coast could see increasingly wild swings in weather – a consequence of continued climate change. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in Nature Climate Change by researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles, UC-Irvine, and The Nature Conservancy. T

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Wrap-up Of California’s Dry/Warm Winter; “May Gray” Along The Coast And Persistent Mountain Showers Continue

May 24, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The California Weather Blogby Daniel Swain

Most of California was on track for one of its driest winters on record as recently as February as a result of persistent (one might even call it resilient) high pressure ridging along the West Coast during the first half of winter. Recall that December 2017 featured the largest wildfire in modern California history, following on the heels of the most destructive and deadly wildfire event in the state’s history just months earlier in October. Through late February, Sierra Nevada snowpack was tracking near its lowest level in recorded history–on par with the near-total snow drought of 2014-2015.

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