Our speaker will be Dr. Daniel Swain, Climate Scientist at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. He’ll speak about climate change in California:

“California is a land of great geographic and climatological diversity, and no stranger to drought, flood, and fire. The region already has one of the highest degrees of precipitation variability in the world, and is notably susceptible to extremes at both ends of the hydroclimate spectrum. California’s cities and water infrastructure are designed with this relatively high variability explicitly in mind, and have historically been able to accommodate most of these natural swings from wet to dry (and back again) reasonably well. Yet in a warming climate, California is beginning to experience an even greater degree of “hydroclimate whiplash” that will eventually bring both droughts and floods that are outside the bounds of historical experience and will seriously threaten the state’s ability to manage these hazards. In this talk, I’ll outline what we know with high certainty about California’s changing climate, discuss some of the more speculative and uncertain aspects, and conclude with thoughts on what adaptations would be commensurate with the changes ahead.”

About Daniel Swain

Dr. Daniel Swain is a climate scientist focused on the dynamics and impacts of extreme events—including droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires—on a warming planet. Daniel holds joint appointments as a climate scientist with the University of California and a research fellow at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research. He engages extensively with journalists and other media partners, serving as a climate and weather science liaison to print, television, radio, and web-based outlets to facilitate accessible and accurate coverage and conversations surrounding climate change. Daniel is an alumnus of the University of California, Davis (B.S., Atmospheric Science) and of Stanford University (Ph.D., Earth System Science), and completed his postdoctoral work at UCLA. He also authors the widely-read Weather West blog (weatherwest.com), which provides real-time perspectives on California weather and climate, and can be found on Twitter (@Weather_West) and YouTube (@WeatherWest).