Climate Reality Check with UCLA’s Dr. Daniel Swain

From River Partners – Californians have a long history of hoping and praying for water to end the state’s ongoing cycle of drought. Then, this year’s unprecedented wet winter ended the worst drought on record. And now, we face a potentially even warmer and wetter El Niño winter. We wanted water, but are we ready for the storms ahead? In addition, the threat of the “Big One” looms on the hopefully distant horizon: a worst-case-scenario megastorm that could cause catastrophic flooding statewide. We know it’s going to happen, but we don’t know when. Should we be scared? Is California prepared? For this two-part blog series, River Partners sat down with extreme-weather researcher and climate scientist Dr. Daniel Swain, author of the Weather West blog, to share insights into the realities of a changing climate.

• Part 1 – Climate Reality Check with UCLA’s Dr. Daniel Swain
• Part 2 – Coming in November. We Can’t Build Our Way Out: Nature-Based Solutions to Adapt to a Changing Climate

In part one we dive into the forces shaping California’s extreme weather, the potential impacts of another wet winter, and the risk of a megaflood event. (more)