Calif. Continues to Shatter Temperature Records

The dubious records keep piling up for California, a state wracked by four years of drought brought on by a pernicious weather pattern that has kept rains at bay and exacerbated by human-induced warming.  Just one week after the state measured its lowest-ever snowpack, U.S. scientists have announced that the year so far has been the warmest on record, setting expectations for a long, hot, dry year ahead.

“2015 to date has been truly astonishingly warm in California, and we're breaking almost all the temperature records there are to break,” Daniel Swain, an atmospheric science PhD student at Stanford University, said in an email.

The broiling temperatures have played a key role in the state’s dire drought, now in its fourth year and with no signs of abating.

The January-March temperature record bested last year’s record by a solid 1.8°F, according to figures released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; 2014 turned out to be the warmest year on record in the state.

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