Weather West has provided unique perspectives on California weather and climate since 2006.
Dr. Daniel Swain is a climate scientist is a climate scientist focused on the dynamics and impacts of extreme events—including droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires—on a warming planet. Daniel holds joint appointments as a climate scientist within the California Institute for Water Resources within University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR), the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, and as a research fellow at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research.
He engages extensively with journalists and other media partners, serving as a climate and weather science liaison to print, television, radio, and web-based outlets to facilitate accessible and accurate coverage and conversations surrounding climate change. Daniel is an alumnus of the University of California, Davis (B.S., Atmospheric Science) and of Stanford University (Ph.D., Earth System Science), and completed his postdoctoral work at UCLA. He also authors the widely-read Weather West blog (weatherwest.com), which provides real-time perspectives on California weather and climate, and can be found on Twitter (@Weather_West), Bluesky (@WeatherWest) and YouTube (@WeatherWest). His full curriculum vitae is available here.
Peer-reviewed scientific publications
PDF copies made available below are from the author’s personal archive and are intended to be used for non-commercial/educational purposes only. If a PDF is not available, please email me directly to obtain a personal copy.
2024
Swain, D.L. On the Job: Daniel Swain, Climate Scientist. Weatherwise, 77:1, 53-55, doi: 10.1080/00431672.2024.2284612, 2024.
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2023
Swain, D.L. Support climate scientists in engaging the public. Nature, 624, 9, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03436-1, 2023.
Swain, D.L., J.T. Abatzoglou, C. Kolden, K. Shive, D. A. Kalashnikov, D. Singh, and E. Smith. “Climate change is narrowing and shifting prescribed fire windows in western United States.” Communications Earth and Environment, 4, 340, doi: 10.1038/s43247-023-00993-1, 2023.
2022
**Huang, X.Y. and **D.L. Swain. Climate change is increasing the risk of a California Megaflood. Science Advances, 8, 32, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abq0995, 2022. (Equal Contributions /Co-first authors)
Kalashnikov, D.A., Abatzoglou, J.T., Nauslar, N.J., Swain, D.L., Touma, D., & D. Singh. Meteorological factors and elevation dependence of dry lightning in central and northern California. Environmental Research: Climate, 1, 025001, doi: 10.1088/2752-5295/ac84a0, 2022.
Touma, D., Stevenson, S., Swain, D.L., Singh, D., Kalashnikov, D., and X.Y. Huang. Climate change increases risk of extreme rainfall following wildfire in the western United States. Science Advances, 8, eabm0320, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abm0320, 2022.
Fish, M.A., Done, J., Swain, D.L., Wilson, A.M., Michaelis, A.C., Gibson, P.B., and F.M. Ralph. Large-scale environments of successive atmospheric river events leading to compound precipitation extremes in California. Journal of Climate, 35, 1515–1536, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0168.1, 2022.
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Kalashnikov, D., Schnell, J.L., Abatzoglou, J.T., Swain, D.L., and D. Singh. Increasing co-occurrence of fine particulate matter and ground-level ozone extremes in the western United States. Science Advances, 8, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abi9386, 2022.
2021
Brunner, M.I., Swain, D.L., Wood, R.R., Willkofer, F., Done, J.M., Gilleland, E., and R. Ludwig. An extremeness threshold determines the regional response of floods to changes in rainfall extremes. Communications Earth and Environment, 2, doi: 10.1038/s43247-021-00248-x, 2021.
Goldenson, N., Thackeray, C.W., Hall, A., Swain, D.L., and N. Berg. Using large ensembles to identify regions of systematic biases in moderate to heavy daily precipitation. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2020GL092026, doi: 10.1029/2020GL092026, 2021.
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Swain, D.L. A shorter, sharper rainy season amplifies California wildfire risk. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL092843, doi:10.1029/2021GL092843, 2021.
Brunner, M.I., Swain, D.L., Gilleland, E., and A. Wood. Increasing importance of temperature as a driver of streamflow drought spatial extent. Environmental Research Letters, 16, 024038, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/abd2f0, 2021.
2020
Gonzales, K.R., Swain, D.L., Barnes, E.A., and N.S. Diffenbaugh. Moisture- vs. Wind-Dominated Flavors of Atmospheric Rivers. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2020GL090042, doi: 10.1029/2020GL090042, 2020.
Swain, D.L., O.E.J., Wing, Bates, P.D., Done, J.M., Johnson, K., and D.R. Cameron. Increased flood exposure due to climate change and population growth in the United States. Earth’s Future, 8, e2020EF00177, doi: 10.1029/2020EF001778, 2020.
Persad, G.G., Swain, D.L., Kouba, C., and J.P.O. Partida. Inter-Model Agreement on Projected Shifts in California Hydroclimate Characteristics Critical to Water Management. Climatic Change, 162, 1493–1513, doi: 10.1007/s10584-020-02882-4, 2020.
Abatzoglou, J., Smith, C., Swain, D.L., and C. Kolden. Population exposure to pre-emptive de-energization aimed at averting wildfires in Northern California. Environmental Research Letters, 15, 094046, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aba135, 2020.
Brunner, M.I., Gilleland, E., Wood, A., Swain, D.L., and M. Clark. Spatial dependence of floods shaped by spatiotemporal variations in meteorological and land-surface processes. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2020GL088000, doi: 10.1029/2020GL088000, 2020.
Huang, X., Swain, D.L., and A. Hall. Large ensemble downscaling of extreme atmospheric river storms in California reveals large increase in fine-scale precipitation. Science Advances, 6, eaba1323, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba1323, 2020.
Swain, D.L., Singh, D., Touma, D., and N.S. Diffenbaugh. Attributing extreme events to climate change: A new frontier in a warming world, One Earth, 2, 522-527, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.05.011, 2020.
Goss, M., Swain, D.L., Sarhadi, A., Kolden, C.A., Abatzoglou, J.T., Williams, A.P., and N.S. Diffenbaugh. Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California. Environmental Research Letters, 15 (9), 094016, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab83a7, 2020.
Gibson, P.B., Waliser, D.E., Guan, B., DeFlorio, M.J., and D.L. Swain, Ridging associated with drought in western and southwestern United States: characteristics, trends and predictability, Journal of Climate, 33, 2485-2408, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0439.1, 2020.
Huang, X., Swain, D.L., Walton, D.B., Berg, N., Stevenson, S., and A. Hall, Simulating and Evaluating Atmospheric River-Induced Precipitation Extremes along the U.S. Pacific Coast: Case Studies from 1980-2017, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125, e2019JD031554, doi:10.1029/2019JD031554, 2020 .
2019
Gonzales, K.R., Swain, D.L., Barnes, E.A., K. Nardi, and N.S. Diffenbaugh, Recent warming of landfalling atmospheric rivers along the West Coast of the United States, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, doi: 0.1029/2018JD029860, 2019.
D.L. Swain, Is society ready for increasing precipitation whiplash? In: “Toward a Resilient Global Society: Air, Sea Level, Earthquakes, and Weather,” Earth’s Future, doi: 10.1029/2019EF001242, 2019.
2018
Thackeray, C.W., A.M. DeAngelis, A. Hall, D.L. Swain, and X. Qu, On the Connection Between Global Hydrologic Sensitivity and Regional Wet Extremes, Geophysical Review Letters, 45, doi: 10.1029/2018GL079698, 2018.
Touma, D., A. M. Michalak, D.L. Swain, and N.S. Diffenbaugh, Characterizing the spatial characteristics of extreme precipitation over the United States, Journal of Climate, 31, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0019.1, 2018.
Swain, D.L., B. Langenbrunner, J.D. Neelin, and A. Hall, Increasing precipitation volatility in twenty-first-century California, Nature Climate Change, 8, 427-433, doi: 10.1038/s41558-018-0140-y., 2018.
2017
Swain, D.L., D. Singh, D.E. Horton, J.S. Mankin, T. Ballard, and N.S. Diffenbaugh, Remote linkages to anomalous winter atmospheric ridging over the northeastern Pacific, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 122, doi: 10.1002/2017JD026575, 2017.
Diffenbaugh, N.S., Singh, D., Mankin, J.S., Charland, A., Horton, D.E., Haugen, M., Swain, D.L., Rajaratnam, B., Touma, D., Quantifying the influence of global warming on unprecedented extreme climate events, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114, 4881-4886, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1618082114, 2017.
2016
Singh, D., D. L. Swain, J.S. Mankin, D.E. Horton, L.N. Thomas, B. Rajaratnam, and N.S. Diffenbaugh, Recent amplification of the North American winter temperature dipole, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 121, doi: 10.1002/2016JD025116, 2016.
Swain, D. L., Horton, D.E., Singh, D., and N.S. Diffenbaugh, Trends in atmospheric patterns conducive to seasonal precipitation and temperature extremes in California, Science Advances, 2, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1501344, 2016.
2015
Swain, D.L., Lebassi-Habtezion, B., and N.S. Diffenbaugh, Evaluation of non-hydrostatic simulations of Northeast Pacific atmospheric rivers and comparison to in-situ observations, Monthly Weather Review, 143, 3556-3569, doi: 10.1175/MWR-D-15-0079.1, 2015.
Horton, D.E., N.C. Johnson, D. Singh, D.L. Swain, B. Rajaratnam and N.S. Diffenbaugh, Contribution of changes in atmospheric circulation patterns to extreme temperature trends, Nature, 522, 465–469, doi: 10.1038/nature14550, 2015.
Diffenbaugh, N.S., D.L. Swain and D. Touma, Anthropogenic warming has increased drought risk in California, 112, 3931-3936, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1422385112, 2015.
Swain, D.L., A tale of two California droughts: Lessons amidst record warmth and dryness in a region of complex physical and human geography, Geophysical Review Letters, doi:10.1002/2015GL066628, 2015.
2014
Swain, D.L., M. Tsiang, M. Haugen, D. Singh, A. Charland, B. Rajaratnam and N.S. Diffenbaugh, The extraordinary California drought of 2013-2014: character, context, and the role of climate change [in “Explaining Extremes of 2013 from a Climate Perspective”], Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 95 (9), S3–S7, 2014.