California’s complex but fragile climate is being split in two this year. In Northern California, record-setting rainfall and massive ocean swells are wreaking havoc on the state’s iconic piers and aging infrastructure, causing floods and, in a rare moment, a tornado alert . Just hours away down Interstate 5, Southern California is baking away, spiraling toward a deep drought with no immediate end in sight. At the end of the year, the contrast between the state’s two halves couldn’t be more stark .
San Diego, the state’s second-most-populous county (and fifth largest in the United States), has not seen meaningful rainfall in months. The area is hurtling toward one of its driest starts to what has historically been the region’s rainy season, matching dryness levels not seen in more than 150 years .
Just up the coast, Los Angeles is in a similarly arid state. The metro area has not had an impactful rainstorm since the spring, and is expected to “finish tied for first place for the driest conclusion to the year,” senior National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall told KTLA-TV earlier this month. By contrast, between 1991 and 2020, Downtown LA averaged nearly 2.5 inches of precipitation for the month of December.
It’s a sharp contrast to last February, when Southern California was deluged with up to 14 inches of rain in less than a week, leading to mudslides, flooding and coastal destruction. With a La Niña weather pattern on the horizon , drier conditions should persist across Southern California through the winter, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds that also increase the risk of wildfire…