More frequent heat waves in store for California

Searing heat waves like the one blanketing the state this week cannot be directly attributed to global warming, but scientists say the sweltering hot spell is no surprise.

Like the intense hurricanes of 2005, there is no way for scientists to pin one season's weather anomalies onto a warming climate. But scientists say hurricanes and heat waves are now more likely to be more intense and frequent.

"I think you cannot attribute a single heat wave to global warming," said climate scientist Inez Fung, director of UC Berkeley's Center for Atmospheric Sciences. "But in the future there will be more of these heat waves because of global warming."

Scientists compare the situation to a pair of loaded dice. Even if the dice have been weighted to favor ones, there is no way to tell if any given pair of snake eyes is a result of the weight or just chance.

target="_blank"> from the San Jose Mercury News