After Newsom, Others Tie California Weather To Climate Change, Experts Say Not So Fast

Public figures and media personnel have speculated on this already climate change Recent severe weather in the state of was due to this factor California — but climate scientists are now saying that is not necessarily the case.

The Los Angeles Times reported According to scientists, there is no evidence that recent storms are linked to a changing climate. Instead, the storms are very similar to other major weather events that have struck the state since the 1800s. 

Some, including Gavin Newsom, the Democratic Governor, were not stopped by uncertainty about what caused the weather events. jumping conclusion that climate change was causing the increase in rain.

Newsom was inaugurated last week tweeted, “Megadroughts. Wildfires. Historic floods and atmospheric rivers. This whiplash weather is not an anomaly. California is proof that the climate crisis is real and we have to take it seriously.”

Megadroughts. Wildfires. Historic floods and atmospheric river.

This whiplash weather is not an exception.

California is a clear example of the reality of climate change and it is something we must address. pic.twitter.com/XWd35aWOOj

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 11, 2023

“Hot’s getting a lot hotter,” Newsom also said At a news conference earlier this week. “Dry’s getting a lot dryer. But the wet’s getting a lot wetter, as well.”

Scientists now believe that these weather phenomena are not unusual.

“We know from climate models that global warming will boost California storms of the future, but we haven’t made that connection with the latest storm systems,” Alexander Gershunov, a research meteorologist Scripps Institution of Oceanography is a UC San Diego institution department, said.

“Assuming that these storms were driven by global warming would be like assuming an athlete who breaks a record was on steroids,” Gershunov noted.

“A group I call ‘mediaologists’ always hype the current situation to make it seem worse than the last one,” Gershunov spoke.

Michael Anderson, the state’s climatologist According to the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the atmospheric rivers are a sign of how destructive flooding can be in such a dry climate.

“Each of the recent atmospheric rivers were within the historical distribution of sizes of atmospheric rivers,” Anderson said, adding, “It will take further study to determine how warming temperatures influenced the sequence or the sudden transition from dry to wet and soon back to dry.”

Jayme Laber, senior hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, California, said the storms weren’t larger than what the state has experienced in the past.

“Overall, it was nothing as big as what we’ve gone through before,” Laber stated. 

“Most recent storm systems don’t hold a candle to the kinds of extreme prolonged storms of the last century,” The outlet was told by Daniel Swain from UCLA, a climate scientist. “They do, however, point in the direction of the episodes of hydro-climate we can expect to see more of due to global warming.”

California has had more rain in the past than it did in the present, as evidenced by the fact that California saw 85.3% of its annual average precipitation in January 1956. The state had around 70% rainfall as of January 18, according to the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. 

A. Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist UCLA: His work was recognized “does not show a connection” The California weather and global warming 

“Global warming is real,” He said: “and because of it the heaviest storms around the world are getting heavier — except in California and the southwestern United States, where the weather typically swings from too dry to too wet.”

California has been subject to a torrential storm surge over the past few days. This has caused extensive damage throughout the state, as well as replenishing water supplies and land that was in desperate need of it after a drought. As a result, at least nineteen people have tragically lost their lives due to the weather.

In order to help drought-stricken areas for years, reservoirs are being pumped full of water. Shasta Lake, the state’s largest reservoir It was at 53% capacity on January 18. According to, it was 34% capacity one year ago. KCRA.

The snowpack It is also available at 250Californians will have sufficient water if it is at least 5% by April. Aquifers are the ones that provide water for California. groundwater, don’t improve as effortlessly, Williams told the Times.