Climate scientist Daniel Swain says Butte County has become a “poster child” over the past decade for what can happen when a warming climate triggers extreme summers and winters.
The Record Searchlight reached out to Swain before the Park Fire started for insights on the record-breaking heat that enveloped the North State this summer.
The number of days in which the high temperature in Redding reached at least 110 degrees set a record this year. Redding’s daily high temperature in July reached 110 degrees 12 times, as of Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
Swain said, too, winters have become warmer overall and that has caused an increase of what he calls “precipitation whiplash” — more rain falling in the winter months and less precipitation in the spring and fall.
He said Butte County, especially the area around Oroville, is “a bit of a poster child” for this weather phenomenon.
This whiplash potentially means less water available throughout the year due to less precipitation in the spring and fall and year-round warmer temperatures, Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA’s Institute of Environment and Sustainability, said in an email to the Record Searchlight.