There are several ways in which global warming intensifies drought. Hotter temperatures increase evaporation from soil and reservoirs. They cause more precipitation to fall as rain and less as snow, which for a region like California that relies on the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains as its natural water storage system, is problematic.
California is the biggest agricultural producer in the USA, and exported $18 billion of agricultural products to the world market in 2012. The state leads the USA in 79 different crop and livestock commodities ranging from artichokes to olives to walnuts. When California agriculture takes a hit due to drought amplified by global warming, it has costs across the country and around the world in the form of higher food prices.
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