California drought Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

California drought - Essay Example The climate change is a global situation which California follows. The scientists managed to predict this situation a decade before, when they discovered that â€Å"†¦warming-driven Arctic ice loss would lead to worsening drought in California†. (Romm, 2014). The researchers from Utah State University have found that the â€Å"†¦evidence connecting the amplified wind patterns, consisting of a strong high pressure in the West and a deep low pressure in the East, to global warming.† (Wang, 2014). The increasing index of dipole intensification which California has been facing since the 1970s and still faces up to this moment causes extreme droughts in this state. (Wang, 2014). Global warming is also an important actor in terms of climate-related drought reasons because it results in the Earth’s atmosphere becoming thicker which means also increase of high-pressure indices occurrence, and this is a key factor for temperature, snowfall and rainfall extreme l evels and unorganized patterns of weather observed over the recent years. (Mooney, 2013). The problem of greenhouse gases amount increase in the atmosphere is a global point of concern which result of the ozone layer becoming thinner contributes to temperature increase which, obviously, is another cause of drought in any part of the world, including California. (Takle, 2003). Lack of precipitations in the form of snow is one more natural cause of the California drought. It is also reported that if the temperature is warmer, then reduction of snowpack in winter in the mountains of California is possible, which could result in increasing of the runoff in winter and, on the contrary, decreasing of the runoff in spring. Such shifts in runoffs of the two mentioned seasons can promote conditions for drought in summer, such as too much water loss because of flood and little water saving. (Hanak, Lund, 2008). Rain precipitations are also important in terms of