As fire rages in Ventura County, Take Two looks at the effects of climate change on California weather. New research from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory found the state could be hit with more frequent and severe droughts due to melting Arctic ice.
Take Two host A Martinez sits down with Noah Diffenbaugh, professor of earth sciences at Stanford University, to talk about how global warming will impact our already parched state.
"People who pay attention to the weather know when high pressure masses in the Pacific block storms from California," Diffenbaugh says. "The significance of this new publications is that those high pressures ridges will become more persistent."
If the pace of climate change continues on the current trajectory, droughts in California might be longer and more severe, possibly leading to more wildfire.
"The drought has certainly dried out the vegetation on the West Coast that fuels wild fires," Diffenbaugh says.
"This new insight is linking future global warming and precipitation in California," he adds. "If you can imagine the butterfly effect that produces ramifications. This is not a butterfly, this is a hammer, a hammer on the climate system."
Click on the media player above to hear what Californians can do to prepare for the change