From Daniel Swain at the California Weather Blog:
“This special update is a little different from what I typically post on the California Weather Blog. In the paragraphs below, I discuss results from and context for a study that my colleagues and I recently published in a special issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (Swain et al. 2014). Unlike the majority of content on this blog, this report has undergone scientific peer review—an important distinction to make in the science blogosphere—and claims made on the basis of our peer-reviewed findings are marked with an asterisk (*) throughout this post. I would like to thank my co-authors—Michael Tsiang, Matz Haugen, Deepti Singh, Allison Charland, Bala Rajaratnam, and Noah Diffenbaugh—all of whom played critical roles in bringing this paper together. ... “
For more on the drought, it’s depth in relation to other droughts, the likely cause of the incredibly warm and dry conditions, and whether climate change has increased the risk of similar droughts as we’re experiencing, continue reading here: Special update: The Extraordinary California Drought of 2013-2014: Character, Context, and the Role of Climate Change
