Climate change is rapidly accelerating in California, state report says
California is experiencing one of the most troubling climate change trends in the United States, the report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said.
The recent data on climate is only the beginning of what the United Nations warns will be a “new normal” of worsening conditions that will see the region become a “global crossroads” with no end in sight.
The report, released last Tuesday, looked specifically at how changes in the earth’s temperature have affected California. The IPCC found that California has experienced a “record-breaking” increase in year-to-year temperature.
A new heat wave has been observed in the state since August 2018, when temperatures were up to 30 degrees celsius (86 degrees fahrenheit), the report said. This new heat wave combined with the drought that California has been experiencing this summer, caused the state to endure one of the “heaviest drought on record.”
The report said that the 2018 El Niño that was responsible for the unprecedented year-to-year increase in temperature is now in its “death spiral.”
This El Niño was also responsible for California’s record high sea ice extent and minimum winter Arctic sea ice cover.
The report pointed out that extreme rainfall across the state continues to be a “cause for national concern” and warned that it could intensify in the coming years.
“El Niño’s central circulation has weakened, causing dry conditions to spread over the whole Central American [and South] American regions,” the report said.
By the end of this year, drought conditions are expected to become more severe by the end of 2020, the report states. California is currently experiencing its third wettest year on record, with the most precipitation being received since 2016.
Drought in the state in 2016 caused 20 deaths
On average, California will see 30 to 40 percent less precipitation than the state expects in the next ten years, it said.
California has seen an increase in rainfall since 2016, but the report warned that the state could see a drastic increase by the end of next year – as early as October