Is climate change behind California's dry spell?
Friday, February 28, 2014 - 10:30
in Earth & Climate
California's parched landscapes are receiving a much-needed soaking this week as heavy rainstorms roll across the West Coast. The break in the state's dry spell is due to a weakening of an atmospheric anomaly that has been hovering above the northern Pacific Ocean. Dubbed the "ridiculously resilient ridge" by a Stanford graduate student, this enormous region of atmospheric high pressure has been squatting off the coast of western Canada since January 2013, diverting storms northward, away from California and toward Alaska.