Weather 'anomalies' are felt from California to Minnesota; climate change seems to be driving precipitation extremes

Anomalies from the 1991-2020 average (Axios Visuals map from NOAA data)

California is becoming a dry dust bowl. No, wait! They've got galactic snowpack. But now, it's raining. . . . everything is sopping wet. Trying to keep up with this year's weather can be likened to riding a roller coaster. "Much of California and the midwestern United States just had some of the wettest winter weather on record, per data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration," report Alex Fitzpatrick and Erin Davis of Axios. "The opposite was true in the Pacific Northwest and in parts of Texas and Florida, which were significantly drier than average."

Extreme weather "can cause hazardous conditions from blizzards and ice storms, which prevent travel and knock out power — but it can also alleviate drought, especially in mountainous areas that rely on melting snowpack each spring to replenish groundwater supplies," Fitzpatrick and Davis report. Some moisture can be explained, "Much of California's precipitation lately has been driven by atmospheric rivers — 'long, narrow highways of moisture, typically located at about 10,000 to 15,000 feet above the surface,' as Axios' Andrew Freedman writes in this helpful description." The reasons why "Minneapolis had its second-wettest winter on record, with about 6.4 inches of precipitation — around 3.5 inches more than normal . . . . and Naples, Florida, had its driest winter on record" are not as clear.

But this seems clear: "Climate change is raising the odds and severity of precipitation extremes — both heavy rain and snow as well as prolonged and severe dry spells," Axios reports. "However, it doesn't mean every season, or even every year, will set a new all-time record."