California Drought, Marine Heat More Likely With Warming

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The California coastline. Creative Commons image by Flickr user

By John Upton, KQED News Fix/Climate Central

A persistent wash of warm waters off the West Coast, which caused wildlife die-offs and blocked drought-quenching storms from reaching California last year, was caused by the happenstance interplay of natural ocean cycles, research findings published Monday show.

The findings also suggested that while the drought and the blob of warm water were the result of the natural whims of the weather, climate change could make such events more likely and intense in the future. To a small extent, it’s already doing so.

Read the complete story at KQED News Fix/Climate Central.

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