(TNS) - Californians should expect more dramatic swings between dry and wet years as the climate warms, according to a new study that found it likely that the state will be hit by devastating, widespread flooding in coming decades.

UC researchers in essence found that California's highly volatile climate will become even more volatile as human-caused climate change tinkers with atmospheric patterns over the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The long-term average of annual precipitation in California won't change much, they predicted.

"Yet despite that, we see a big increase in extremes," said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, lead author of a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. "We expect to see more really wet years and also more really dry years."

That means managing the state's complex waterworks will become even more daunting. The threat to aging dams and flood-control networks will increase. The wildfire threat will grow more extreme.

"We really need to be thinking seriously about what we're going to do about these risks," Swain said.

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