Drought and wet years tend to alternate in our part of the world. We get used to a winter with little snow followed by one with above-average snowpack.
But computer climate models show the situation getting worse as the planet warms, with something like a "precipitation whiplash" effect: deep and prolonged droughts followed by deluges.
Daniel Swain led the team of scientists reporting on the effect. He works at the Center for Climate Science at UCLA. Dr. Swain joins us for a perusal of his findings.
