Document Details

Extreme California Rains During Winter 2015/16: A Change in El Niño Teleconnection?

Tao Zhang, Klaus Wolter, Lesley Smith, Xiao-Wei Quan, Judith Perlwitz, Martin Hoerling, Andrew Hoell, Jon Eischeid | January 25th, 2018


This is a story of two extreme events—one that was expected but failed to occur and the other that actually did occur but was not anticipated. The one that failed was extreme wetness over Southern California (SCAL) during winter 2015/16, which was predicted by seasonal forecasts. The extreme event that did occur was dryness whose considerable magnitude exacerbated one of the worst droughts on record over SCAL.

*Chapter 10,  Explaining Extreme Events of 2016 from a Climate Perspective, Herring, S. C., N. Christidis, A. Hoell, J. P. Kossin, C. J. Schreck III, and P. A. Stott, Eds., 2018: Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 99 (1), S1–S157.

Keywords

atmospheric rivers, climate change, flood management, planning and management, risk assessment, water supply forecasting