Daniel Swain and Park Williams on the Bay Area’s wettest 3 weeks in 161 years | Sustainable LA Grand Challenge

Katerina Jowid
January 18, 2023
SLAGC News and Events

Publication: Bay Area News Group

UCLA Expert: Daniel Swain: Assistant Researcher and Climate Specialist, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Park Williams: Associate Professor and Climate Hydrologist, Department of Geography

Synopsis: The past three weeks in the Bay have been the wettest in 161 years. The last time rainfall totals in San Francisco were greater, Abraham Lincoln was president.

UCLA News: “We’ve gotten so much water and so much snow,” said Swain. “It’s going to help us dry out and dig out heading into late January. It’s really good news because it takes off the trajectory toward worsening flooding.”... “California has always had big storms like this,” added Williams, whose research has shown that droughts and wildfires are becoming more severe due to warming. “Climate change can make them more intense. But we might have had a year this wet whether or not we had climate change. And 1862 proves that.”