Precipitation and Evaporation Changes in California in the Month of December.pdf

​The California drought has been going on for years. However, 2015-2016 has been known as an El Niño year and, according to scientists, 2015 was the hottest year in historical record. El Niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, and the El Niño years can involve excessive rainfall compared to normal years in California. During the peak of winter this past December, California experienced more rain than had been seen for decades. I am comparing precipitation and evaporation during the month of December between 2014 and 2015. The following is my calculation: Percent change = (New value – Old value) / Old value * 100. From December 2014 to December 2015, the results show that precipitation had increased dramatically in Central and Northern California. However, evaporation had recorded in negative values, which meant that Northern and Central California were very wet because of more rainfall and less evaporation. In contrast, Southern California had tremendously increased in evaporation but was drier with very little precipitation.

Tool: ArcGIS Desktop, Adobe Illustrator