Why is Southern California getting dryer?

Question

People say there will be global warming. Why does that give more rain in some places but more drought in Southern California?

Answer 1

The enhanced southwest monsoon in the spring and summer months has radically changed the general climate of southern California over the last 60 years from dry near desert to muggy sub tropical inland of the coastal mountains because of geologic changes in a ocean ridge extending from Baja California almost to Panama off the west coast. This ridge as it grows from earthquake activity and coral reef growth is altering some minor ocean currents altering the climate of large parts of North America! At the same time the coastal region only gets the northern storms if the jet stream dips down in the winter months. We no longer get the pineapple express as we used to 20 years ago because of these minor current alterations. So the inland southwest is going semi tropical and the coast only gets the humidity during the summer months while the rain goes to the desert.

Answer 2

Dryer??? I live in the Coachella Valley, and it's been very humid this summer. Perhaps because of all the pools and irrigation systems and water hazards on golf courses, but it really has been extremely humid.

I don't know where you live, but I would hardly call the climate here dry.

Answer 3

too arid.

Answer 4

You have to understand alarmism.  It wouldn't be very alarming to suggest that a dry place will get wetter or that a wet place would get drier.  That is why alarmist always insist that California, a dry place will get drier.  Storms will get stormier.  Floods will get worse.  More and worse tornadoes.  If they said tornadoes would get fewer in number and intensity, no one would care.  I know there will be alarmists that insist that this is what computer models have suggested but those models that don't suggest anything alarming also get ignored.  As a Southern California geologist, I too can say that it hasn't really been getting drying except for the last couple years and I am sure that is simply natural fluctuations.  Except by the coast, we pretty much live in a desert.

Answer 5

Look at a globe of the earth. Since this last ice age the belt of area (including California) around the earth, is getting drier. This is natural with slow fluctuations but are now aggravated by pollution gases from burning fossil fuels. i.e., global warming.  

Answer 6

i believe that it IS because of global warming. global warming means extreme climate conditions. and as you can see. there have been many extreme storms lately. the floods, drought, hurricanes, etc

Answer 7

uh.....well,dude its August!What else do you expect,and summer is coming to an end!:]

Answer 8

Well much of Southern California is desert, so it's naturally dry. Second, the whole of California is experiencing a drought right now, so that would dry Southern California even more.

Answer 9

Subject: IT IS NOT GLOBAL WARMING, BUT IT IS A SHIFT IN CLIMATE ZONES DUE TO THE DECREASE IN THE EARTH'S OBLIQUITY

> The earth's obliquity Angle decreases by 0.47" each

> year, which changes the focus of the sun's radiation

> on earth, resulting in climate shifts. As the

> obliquity angle decreases, the hemispheres change in

> basic temperature with the south becoming colder and

> the north becoming warmer.  When the obliquity angle

> reaches about 22 degrees, it will start to go the

> other way and the north will get colder again and the

> south will become warmer.  Obviously, and counter to

> Al Gores unlearned theories, the warming of the

> northern hemisphere cannot be stopped by man.  It will

> stop and reverse itself.  Then the climate shifts we

> presently experience will be goin the other way.  It

> is pure logic applied to astro-physical law.

>

> It has long been recognized that rather than staying

> constant, obliquity varies slowly with time as a

> result of external gravitational influences. The Moon

> and Sun's tidal torques on Earth's ellipticity give

> rise to the familiar 26,000-year astronomical

> precession, while the gravitational pull of other

> planets, primarily Jupiter and Venus, slowly perturbs

> the orientation of the ecliptic plane in space. The

> combined effect observed by Earth dwellers is an

> ~41,000-year oscillation in the obliquity with overall

> amplitude typically of about 2°. This oscillation is

> one of the three Milankovitch cycles that ultimately

> affect our long-term climatic system and serve as the

> pacemaker of ice ages. The present-day obliquity

> happens to be close to the mean value, and we are in

> the middle of a downswing (see figure (1)). In terms

> of real distance on the Earth's surface, one should

> see a slow equatorward shift of the tropics by 14.4 m

> a year-well over 1 km in a century!  

Answer 10

The California coast has been getting more dry for about 18,000 years since the end of the last ice age. The ice pack used to extend down to California.

In addition, California experiences El Nino and La Nina weather patterns driven by changes in ocean currents. These cyclic changes make the coast either more dry or more wet.

Back in the late 1980s, it was so VERY dry that our city bought a desalination plant to process sea water for drinking.  Then it got wetter and we never used the plant, sold it to Saudi Arabia or something.  It is not yet as dry again as it was back then.