The New York Times article “Latest Climate Report Warns of Major Upheaval to California Way of Life” by Soumya Karlamangla, claims California faces a future of bigger storms, more extreme floods, longer droughts, destructive wildfires, disappearing snowpack, and major disruption to everyday life because of climate change. This is highly misleading if not outright false. The historical and observational record shows that extreme storms, catastrophic floods, prolonged droughts, enormous wildfires, highly variable snowpack, and coastal erosion have always been defining features of California’s natural environment, while many of the Times’ most alarming claims are projections from climate models rather than observed trends.
The Times opens with a confident description of California’s future:
“Floods will become more widespread and extreme.”
It then warns of “more wildfires, bigger storms, longer droughts,” claiming California faces “major upheaval to long-established ways of life.”
Those are dramatic predictions. What the Times largely fails to provide is the historical context necessary to understand them.
California has always been a land of meteorological extremes. Its Mediterranean climate naturally produces long dry periods punctuated by episodes of tremendous precipitation. Atmospheric rivers carrying Pacific moisture into the state are not a recent creation of climate change. They are fundamental to California’s hydrology.
