Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate, which means warm summers and mild winters. This climate allows for a great diversity of habitats, including oak woodlands, chaparral, grasslands, and coastal sage scrub.
What will temperature conditions look like 50 years from now? The majority of climate studies reveal an ongoing warming trend across the globe, and Los Angeles is no exception. Above, the “Future Change” maps depict how temperatures might change between the 1970-2000 baseline and 2061-2080. Rising temperatures are expected across the region, especially at higher elevations.
These projections assume a scenario in which fossil fuel dependence remains high, and international cooperation for climate change mitigation is heavily delayed. This is what is called a “regional rivalry” scenario (specifically, Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 3-7.0), and is just one of several potential pathways.
While the predictions in the map above are based on the Canadian Earth System Model version 5 (CanESM5), a large number of global climate models have been developed. Scientists must consider several factors when selecting a model (or models) for different applications.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change considers several potential climate scenarios, and dozens of climate models, in their assessment reports.
Data layers derived from: Fick and Hijmans 2017 in International Journal of Climatology, 37(12), 4302-4315. Retrieved from WorldClim.org