Los Angeles failed to reach 70 degrees in February for the first time in its history

For the first time in its history, Los Angeles spent the entire month of February without reaching once the 70 degrees. And the City of Angels recorded its coldest month since 1962, averaging about five degrees less than normal.

The city of 4 million inhabitants is known for its mild winters and its heavenly climate. The average maximum in February is 65, but this month of February was exceptional, falling to about 3.5 degrees below normal and never exceeding 69 points, the highest on February 12. In fact, just three days last month were as hot as a typical February day in Los Angeles.

"It's one of the coldest and rainiest winters I've ever seen," says Jeremy Herbst, a meteorologist who has been living in Los Angeles for over 15 years. "We had frost a number of mornings and more rainy / cloudy days than usual."

Much of the cloud cover on the city that has absorbed the sun has come to the edge of atmospheric rivers – vast tropical moisture plumes of the Pacific that targeted the central coast of California. The storm corridor has dropped a lot of rain and snow in northern California, an obscene 300-centimeter powder falling in Squaw Valley. The record rainfall of 10.78 inches Wednesday in Venado, meanwhile, pushed the rural community of Sonoma County to almost 46 inches for the month. The active weather regime has covered cloud cover over parts of southern California.

[A nonstop stormy February has produced precipitation records all over the nation]

In addition to the gloom, Los Angeles has experienced its share of precipitation this month. A record of 2.2 inches on Valentine's Day allowed him to place him above Seattle for the month. At the Los Angeles International Airport, it was the fifth wettest month of February of all time. Fourteen days of recorded rainfall – more than double the average.

"One of the interesting bonuses is that when you drive, there is so much greenery in what is otherwise hills / brown mountains," wrote Herbst. "It's a different place where grass grows everywhere, knowing that it may brown / die in a few months. The other major plus – at least for me and my wife, and probably for other homeowners with a yard – is that our water bill is considerably lower. "

But it's not just the rain that made the headlines. Snow showers were even reported on several beaches in Los Angeles County on February 21st. Flakes flew to Malibu Pier and Leo Carrillo Beach, with snow flurries approaching sea level at Point Dume.

So, "if you think it's been unusually cold this month in southwestern California," writes the National Weather Service, "you're right".

[Flakes in Hollywood: Rare snow and wintry precipitation scatter around Los Angeles]

There are many who cite the abnormal cold that is looming in Los Angeles as contradictory evidence of climate change. This is just not true, though. It all boils down to natural variability it can still exist in a warming world.

Average temperatures in February – including February data – have risen 5.5 degrees since the beginning of accounting in 1878. This is the symptom of a warming world. The fact that it is the coldest month of February since 1962 does not cancel the 2.3 degrees of warming of the city. average since. Studying climate change is like investing in retirement savings. it is not daily or yearly fluctuations, but trends over a decade over a generation. And this upward trend is definitely here.

Meanwhile, winters in California look more stormy in the years to come. A recent study conducted by Duane Waliser of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena indicates that powerful atmospheric rivers are becoming more and more common.

Waliser warns "the overall frequency of atmospheric conditions of rivers – such as heavy rain and high winds – will increase by about 50%".