Out of the woods?
While keeping in place bans on wasteful water usage (watering lawns during rainstorms, for example, or hosing off sidewalks) the governor strongly urged Californians to adopt conservation as a way of life.
Though the years between 2011 and 2014 marked the driest time since California became a state in 1850, the region has experienced other long droughts in the 20th century including from 1928 to 1934 and from 1987 to 1992.
“21st century droughts have shown record-setting characteristics and are warmer than 20th century counterparts,” he said.
Anderson points to characteristics of this most recent drought that will be increasingly common in future droughts. His research on climate change expectations — some of which was presented last year at a UC Davis event on water use and water security in California — predicts not only warmer temperatures but other “expected impacts” as well, such as smaller snow packs; earlier snowmelt onset; more rain and less snow; atmospheric river (AR) events that can bring short-term high water locally, but seasonal totals that fall short of average; and a greater degree of climate variability and extremes.
“In a warmer world, the characteristics of our extreme precipitation events will likely change, which can lead to events that have not been observed in the historical record.