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Park Williams says California’s ‘got really lucky’ with rain this year

 

Publication: L.A. Times

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

Synopsis: The article discusses why California escaped another destructive fire season in 2022.

UCLA News: “We got really lucky this year,” Williams said. “By the end of June, things were looking like the dice were loaded very strongly toward big fires because things were very dry, and there was a chance of big heat waves in the summer, and indeed we actually did have a really big heatwave this summer in September. But that coincided with some really well-timed and well-placed rainstorms…Precipitation was coming right at the time when it was most needed. Stuff was getting so dried out by these heat waves, and then at kind of like peak dryness, suddenly the skies opened up and soaked everything down, and it happened repeatedly.” Williams cautioned that officials “need to be really careful about taking credit for the luck that weather brings, because next year the dice are once again loaded for a really big fire season, and [they] have not treated all of the forests in California in one year.”

Read more at L.A. Times.