Because forecasters predicted this El Ni o months ahead of time, state and federal officials had time to prepare. Sandbags were rarely in short supply. It stretched the state's water reserves past their limits and cost farmers hundreds of millions. Too little water was as bad as too much. As the prospect of global greenhouse warming grows more certain, both the deluge and the drought stand as examples of what California might face during the 21st century.
Weather is already varied and changeable in California.
The lethal heat of Death Valley is as Californian as the snow atop the Sierras. Now it appears that global warming caused by human activities could push California weather to still further extremes. This paper outlines some of the potential impacts of climate variability and change on California. But it does try to point to the special ways California is vulnerable to weather extremes - as well as the special opportunities changing weather may present. As a result, the ground-level layer of air we live in is much warmer than it would be if the greenhouse gases were absent.