Daniel Swain on The Weather Channel: Where Will All the Water Go?

Daniel Swain (University of California, Los Angeles, and NCAR) has been studying the weather whiplash plaguing California in recent years, as the state lurches between wet years (including 2018-19) and intense drought years akin to those in the early 2010s.

“If precipitation is falling in shorter but sharper bursts — as is an emerging trend around the world — that can result in increased short-term runoff, locally increasing flood risk but decreasing the amount of water that actually soaks into the soil and ultimately makes it into groundwater aquifers,” Swain notes. “That, too, can increase the preconditions necessary for drought, especially when coupled with rising temperatures.”