California is no stranger to natural disasters and is always on edge in fear of the next one. What if California's worst catastrophe was a mega flood?
A new paper, published last week in the journal Science Advances, examines two scenarios: a more or less current megaflood in the recent historical climate, and a future scenario. Global warming has doubled the likelihood of that type of extreme storm flooding, and only increases in likelihood as the planet continues to heat up.
California has not had an event like a megaflood before. According to the researchers, floods occur every five to seven times per millennium and the latest one in 1862 came off the back of weeks-long winter storms.
Climate change will make the next storm even more destructive.
According to study co-author and UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, the storm sequence is bigger in the future.
Up to 400 percent more water could be generated in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by a big flood. Some spots would get over 100 inches of rain in a month, and even the more conservative estimates of the current climate scenario show that widespread areas would get less than 40 inches of rain in 30 days.
When the state's population was half a million, there was a flood. The researchers estimate that a modern day mega flood would cause over $1 trillion in damages and countless lives lost.
Every major population center in California would be hit at the same time.
Scientists may be able to fight global warming.
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