MEXICO: It was a coincidence that temperatures across the Bay Area went record highs this winter as forecasters announced that a team of Stanford researchers have found that ongoing persistent heat is pushing California’s crippling drought. They say that temperatures would keep pushing the drought.
Only two times the past months San Francisco faced a dip of temperatures below fifty degrees. The weather prompted dwellers to go for sunblock instead of grabbing warm clothes. Temperatures remained 60s or 70s every day.
The Stanford team was led by climate researcher Noah Diffenbaugh. He didn’t say that climate change has reduced rainfall but said that warming has increased the chances of hot and dry conditions.
“Of course low precipitation is a prerequisite for drought, but less rain and snowfall alone don’t ensure a drought will happen. It really matters if the lack of precipitation happens during a warm or cool year,” Diffenbaugh said. “We’ve seen the effects of record heat on snow and soil moisture this year in California, and we know from this new research that climate change is increasing the probability of those warm and dry conditions occurring together.”
There was good news for the state by the Department of Water Resources that declared that the state reservoirs are full enough to provide water to cities and farms more than they had previously expected.
“We’re grateful that close coordination among water and wildlife agencies in managing limited runoff this winter will afford State Water Project contractors a slight increase in their supplies,” said Mark Cowin, director of the state Department of Water Resources, in a prepared statement.
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