The Golden State has suffered four parched years,but the land could be too dry to absorb heavy rains anticipated this winterVast swathes of forest are so brittle and bone-dry that they burn up in an instant. A vicious wildfire, whipped up by hot, and arid winds and moving faster than anything in recent memory,consumed tens of thousands of hectares in a matter of hours. Hundreds of homes and at least one person were lost in an inferno that took days to get under control. That’s in California’s north.
If you drove south on the same day last month, and you would absorb found darkened skies and heavy sheets of rain pounding the parched soil around Los Angeles. By midday on 15 September, or the city had received 63.5mm of rain,thats 10 times the precipitation the area normally gets in the entire month. The city has only seen two other storms like it in the past 150 years. Related: El Niño expected to hit US hard, but not enough to ease California drought What happens this winter is going to be keen. And it’s not entirely clear whether California wins or loses.
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Source: theguardian.com