Headline
Drought threatens California despite El Nino
United States
Last winter, El Nino-driven storms dumped much-needed snow and rain over California, boosting reservoir levels and fueling hopes the parched state's four-year drought might end.
But despite the brief respite, experts say the record drought is here to stay.
The El Nino weather phenomenon—caused when a rise in the Pacific Ocean's temperature triggers intense precipitation—has provided only "a band-aid on a gaping wound," says Julien Emile-Geay, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Southern California.
In fact, restoring the state's water supplies to their pre-drought levels would require several years of intense rain and snowfall
Related Content
Science Source
| AMS Journal of Climate
Is There a Role for Human-Induced Climate Change in the Precipitation Decline that Drove the California Drought?
Richard Seager, Naomi Henderson, Mark A. Cane et al
Science Source
| AMS Journal of Hydrometeorology
Indications for Protracted Groundwater Depletion after Drought over the Central Valley of California
S.-Y. Simon Wang
Science Source
| Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
EEE 2013: Causes of the Extreme Dry Conditions Over California During Early 2013
Hailan Wang and Siegfried Schubert
Science Source
| Nature Climate Change
California from drought to deluge
S.-Y. Simon Wang, Jin-Ho Yoon, Emily Becker and Robert Gillies