{"id":23404,"date":"2012-07-31T16:17:55","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T23:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=23404"},"modified":"2012-07-31T16:17:55","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T23:17:55","slug":"no-relief-in-latest-california-climate-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/07\/31\/no-relief-in-latest-california-climate-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"No Relief in Latest California Climate Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"

But hope persists that we can blunt the worst impacts, if not slow down the warming<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The new normal? A temperature display in the Kern County town of Taft shows 105 degrees on a late afternoon in July.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Granted, it’s been a relatively cool summer in many parts of California. But state officials are saying, “Don’t get used to it.” How would you like to see the number of “extremely hot” days (105 or hotter) in Sacramento increase fivefold in the next few decades? That’s just one of many new projections from the state’s latest official climate assessment.<\/p>\n

One hundred-twenty scientists worked on the report, entitled California’s Changing Climate<\/a> (PDF). Funded by the California Energy Commission, it’s actually a portfolio of studies<\/a> and contains some of the most specific warnings we’ve seen. For instance, it projects that going forward, average temperatures in the state will warm at three times last century’s pace. It’ll mean heat waves happening more often and lasting longer.<\/p>\n

And there’s new evidence from a refined set of models that the state will be drying out. “By mid-century, already we’re seeing a drying trend which could be up to ten percent drier by the end of the century, says Susanne Moser, identified as the principal researcher for the report, “and that is significant for a lot of people.” Especially if you live in say, the San Joaquin Valley, where the report projects that the frequency of “dry years” could increase by about a third in the “latter half of this century,” compared to the late 20th century.<\/p>\n

And authors expect the weird weather to get worse, projecting that as soon as 2050, what’s now considered a 100-year storm could become ‘an annual event.”<\/p>\n

State officials nearly fell over each other to say that it’s not too late to blunt some of the worst effects, however, with astute planning and aggressive action to reduce global warming emissions. Ken Alex, who heads Governor Jerry Brown’s Office of Planning & Research, characterized the mounting climate threats as, “a series of plagues,” but added that, “we’re not helpless. We need to adapt and we need to understand what that adaptation requires.”<\/p>\n

Some interesting numbers from the study:<\/p>\n