Daniel Swain: Phys.org—Heavy snow hits parts of southern California

Daniel Swain, a meteorologist at UCLA said a warming climate—caused by humanity’s unchecked burning of fossil fuels in the industrial age—had changed the nature of winter precipitation in the area.

He said last century, many more places might have seen snow in a storm event like this.

“Back in the 1940s there’s records of heavy snowfall in the city of LA and of course that seems almost unthinkable today,” he said.

“The reality is that the fact that the climate is several degrees warmer in California than it used to be makes low (elevation) snow events less likely.”