Global Warming And Climate Change Worsened California Drought, Study Claims

A new study has linked California's drought conditions to man-made warming and quantified the extent of human contribution.

Like similar studies in the past, researchers at Columbia University showed growing temperatures in California over the years in tandem with rise in fuel emissions. The study also went one-step further in pointing out that rising temperatures also cause air to suck moisture, worsening the drought-like conditions. The study estimates that global warming may have worsened the natural drought by contributing as much as 25 percent, The Washington Post reports.

Researchers also warn that arrival of rains later this year in winter may lull people.

"When this happens, the danger is that it will lull people into thinking that everything is now OK, back to normal. But as time goes on, precipitation will be less able to make up for the intensified warmth. People will have to adapt to a new normal," said lead author A. Park Williams.

While warming is expected to bring extra rain, researchers believe evaporation will soon be able to nullify any increase in rainfall, and by 2060 or so permanent drought could settle in.

The team showed that temperatures in California had increased by an average 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the 114-year period from 1901 to 2014.

The state is already witnessing its worst drought on record, which is now in its fourth year. Drying landscape is causing increasing number of forest fires and groundwater depletion rates are reportedly alarming. Scientist arguing for a link between global warming and the drought, have called for policy changes to bring big cut in emissions and limit use of aquifers.