Severe water levels in California

Heat waves and cold snaps, hurricanes and tornadoes, downpours and blizzards — they form the extreme ends of the weather spectrum, affecting our health, infrastructure and livelihoods. And as manmade greenhouse gases are steadily boosting the Earth’s temperature, the nagging question becomes, is global warming to blame? And then, is there more extreme weather in our future?
The severely diminshed water levels of California's Lake Shasta.
Credit: Lyle Rains/flickr
In 2014, researchers were able to make firm connections between climate change and some extreme weather events, and have begun to include new types of weather in those attributions. Those efforts are likely to gain steam in 2015, bringing the links between weather and climate into clearer focus.
The easiest parallel to draw between extreme weather and climate change has been, not surprisingly, heat. That doesn’t mean just the sweaty, sticky summer days that send you gasping for air conditioning. The overall warming of the atmosphere has made heat records more likely over the span of years, including 2014, both locally and globally.https://climatecentral.org/news