Scientists worked with the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach to put together a demonstration aimed at teaching the principles of how extreme weather around the globe finds its roots in California.
It's the same presentation shared with national weather centers around the country.
"It makes me understand a little bit more what they're talking about when they're talking about El Niño and the drought," said Bob Wade, of San Pedro.
Visitors to the aquarium Wednesday were the first to see and hear the report, projected onto the spinning globe in the ocean sciences center.
And the message appears to be getting across.
"It just makes sense to me," said Linda Conkey, of Torrance. "If the Earth is warming up, then the drought has something to do with that, or vice versa."
To connect the idea to global warming is another learning moment.
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"I laughed at it years ago when they talked about it," Wade said. "It was something that, for me, was hard to comprehend. And now it's happening."
Glen MacDonald, a UCLA professor of geography who was part of the study, said the current drought is a preview of the 21st century.
"It's a preview of the future," he said.
California is a model of what the world will soon deal with, MacDonald said.
"They look to us in some ways as a poster child for environmental problems," he said.
