From KQED – California is deep into its rainy season, inching toward a make-or-break moment in building the Sierra Nevada snowpack that millions of Californians rely on for drinking water. What’s happening here is that the state is experiencing a phenomenon called weather whiplash. Warming temperatures are deepening California’s already natural weather pattern: wet, then super-dry conditions that can be accentuated by heat waves, which can melt precious snow reservoirs early and cause flooding. After multiple atmospheric rivers in December and a virtually dry January, the state is oscillating between climate extremes in real time. (more)