Climate change in California - why is this region especially vulnerable?

It is very likely that global warming has already been affecting the California region., and global model projections indicate that much larger changes will unfold over the coming decades. In this talk we review results from two recent State-sponsored assessments of prospective climate change scenarios for California, which indicate that impacts in this region may be particularly challenging. Among the rest of the United States, the annual delivery of precipitation in this region is remarkably volatile, being prone to multi- year droughts and occasional wet spells and large storms-climate change may exacerbate this. An important part of the water supply that historically has come in the form of snow in mountain watersheds will probably shift to rain, which is harder to manage and save for dry summer irrigation and other forms of consumption. Furthermore, much of the water supply is conveyed through the San Franciso Bay/Delta, a complex estuary that will be impacted by bigger floods and rising sea levels.