Record-breaking global heat: YouTube ‘Office Hours’ with Daniel Swain

What does it mean that we continue to have "exceptional and record-breaking global warmth," and what does it tell us about our understanding of climate change? Join the discussion Monday, March, 25, at 10 a.m PT with UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain (link below).

Swain will discuss repeated heat records in 2023 and 2024, and provide an update on California'scooler, wetter weather closing out March. Join live to ask questions in the chat, or visit the same link later to review the recorded briefing. All comments are on the record and news media are welcome to use the video or audio.

Going into the weekend, you can get a preview of his upcoming comments from Weather West postof yesterday:

• A (sometimes record) warm Western winter: "Winter 2023-2024 ended up broadly warmer and wetter than average across the Western U.S."
• Another wet year, but low risk of repeating last year's floods: "All in all, this has turned into a solid water year for most of California, but still a rather different one from last year (it has been *much* warmer, and the snowpack, while pretty good, is dramatically smaller-so I would not expected to see greatly elevated spring snowmelt flood concerns this time around unless there is a sustained extreme heatwave in April/May)."
• Return of rain and snow in CA: "A series of 3-5 weak to moderate storms will affect California in the next 10-14 days, bringing widespread precipitation (especially NorCal) and cooler temperatures. These appear to be fairly decent snow-accumulating storms for the Sierra - no epic blizzards, but the highest elevations could accumulate several additional feet over 10+ days."
• Goodbye El Niño, hello La Niña? "El Niño has been fading in recent weeks, though one final westerly wind burst appears to be postponed its last gasp. … there's a pretty good chance the Earth will be experiencing substantial (and possibly strong) La Niña conditions by next autumn. This could well have implications for seasonal conditions next autumn and winter in California, including fire season. It's still a bit too early to have that conversation in this blog post, but I'll be gearing up to have it in the coming weeks."

YouTube 'Office Hours' with Daniel Swain:

Monday, March 25
10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET