Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Rogue River Valley is getting warmer due to climate change.  A new study says the valley will have hot, dry summers more similar to those in Sacramento than southern Oregon.  Pete Springer reports.

The study comes from the University of Oregon’s Climate Leadership Initiative and the National Center for Conservation Science and Policy in Ashland.

It warns of temperatures that could increase by 15 degrees in summertime by the end of the century. 

Cindy Deacon Williams is with the Center for Conservation Science.  She says the basin will remain drier too.

Cindy Deacon Williams: “We’re going to see changes in growing conditions that will impact both natural vegetation and what grapes grow well in the basin.  So it’s got some pretty wide impacts, both this change in temperature and precipitation.”

Deacon Williams says she understands the irony of releasing a report on global warming when the state is in the grip of a winter cold snap, but she points out that climate change isn’t only about warmer temperatures. 

She says such changes will also mean more chaotic winter storms and rainfall that can cause flooding and storm damage.