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Grape leaves change colors with the season at a vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains in November 2024.<\/p>\n
(Tomas Ovalle \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
Extreme heat can kill a vine just as it can a human. As temperatures rise, so does the speed at which vines pull water from the soil. Once a plant starts losing water faster than it can rehydrate, it mounts a perilous last-ditch effort to save itself.<\/p>\n
The stomates \u2014 the parts of the leaf that control gas and water exchange \u2014 close up in an attempt to reduce water loss. Photosynthesis slows to a crawl. That can kick off further complications that, without emergency intervention, can be fatal.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s just like a cascade of things that start happening,\u201d said McIntyre, who also runs the vineyard management company Monterey Pacific. \u201cI really do compare it to a human with heat stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n
This month, researchers from Japan\u2019s Tohoku University published a granular investigation<\/a> of California viticulture in a changing climate. After mapping a roughly 16-square-kilometer grid of the state, the team ran each cell through multiple climate models to generate data on current and future weather conditions. They then fed that information into an algorithm to analyze wine cultivation suitability over time.<\/p>\n What they found was a redrawn map of California\u2019s prime wine regions.<\/p>\n The team based its definition of suitability primarily on total annual precipitation, cumulative temperature across the growing season, minimum temperature of the coldest month and vapor pressure deficit, meaning the difference between the amount of moisture in the air at a given point and the amount it could hold when saturated. <\/p>\n For decades, viticulturists and researchers have sounded the alarm how climate change could upend a signature industry in California. Above, vineyards dot the hillsides in Watsonville.<\/p>\n (Tomas Ovalle \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Under their model, suitability for grape cultivation may decline over the next 70 years in Napa and Sonoma counties, which currently dominate the state\u2019s premium wine market. Expected climate changes like increased precipitation, lower relative temperature increases and a decrease in extreme fire-weather days in Monterey and Mendocino counties, in contrast, would significantly increase the area\u2019s suitability for wine production.<\/p>\n Viticulturists and researchers have been sounding the alarm about a changing climate\u2019s potential to upend this signature state industry for decades. In 2011, a Stanford University study<\/a> projected that land suitable for cultivating premium wine grapes in California\u2019s North Coast region, which includes Napa and Sonoma, could halve by 2040. Winegrape-bearing acreage in California has shrunk steadily<\/a> since 2013.<\/p>\n Yet these outcomes aren\u2019t inscribed in stone. The model didn\u2019t account for climate adaptations, which virtually all of California\u2019s winemakers are already implementing.<\/p>\n McIntyre\u2019s Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines survived the 2017 heat wave, in part because the vineyard was already experimenting with shade canopies and could roll them out across the site quickly.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, winemakers are adopting misters and low-water irrigation systems, replanting their rows in directions that avoid the peak of the afternoon sun and even experimenting with heat-tolerant grape varietals<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBy changing when the grapes are picked or how they are managed in the field, growers can adapt to global warming without completely replacing their crops,\u201d said Yusuke Hiraga, an assistant professor of engineering at Tohoku University and the lead author of the study. \u201cThese flexible management techniques are expected to be highly useful in protecting wine quality.\u201d<\/p>\n More climate news<\/p>\n The Times\u2019 water reporter Ian James has the alarming news that Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the nation\u2019s two largest reservoirs, have fallen to their lowest combined levels on record<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lake Mead, the country\u2019s largest reservoir, is 27% full. Lake Powell, the second-largest, is at just 23% of capacity and is just 33 feet away from no longer being able to generate hydroelectric power<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the 35 million people<\/a> and 5 million acres of farmland that depend on the Colorado River for water, this is a big deal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a hell of a milestone,\u201d said Jack Schmidt, director of Utah State University\u2019s Center for Colorado River Studies. \u201cIf you need any more evidence that we have a five-alarm fire, here it is.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met with governors of the seven states that rely on the Colorado River for water, including California. The agency will release a plan to deal with water shortages next week, Burgum said afterward.<\/p>\n Most of California\u2019s water allotment goes to agriculture, and many growers are already preparing for a drier future. My colleague Blanca Begert recently traveled to California\u2019s Central Valley, where some farmers are leasing their acres to solar<\/a> companies.<\/p>\n California is legally mandated to reach 100% clean electricity by 2045, an effort that will require an additional 10 gigawatts of clean energy a year and between 0.5 and 1.3 million acres<\/a> of in-state solar development, Blanca and Ian reported. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, solar on retired farmland in the Central Valley could contribute up to 30 gigawatts<\/a> of solar capacity.<\/p>\n Switching from crops to solar isn\u2019t like experimenting with a new grape varietal. It\u2019s a total shift of a farm or region\u2019s identity, and the story notes that some of the largest arrays are planned for places that have historically been strongly anti-solar.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowers are feeling pinched,\u201d Caitlin Peterson, associate director of the PPIC Water Policy Center, told them. \u201cSolar is one of the potential options for folks that are having to take land out of production that has the potential to be fairly lucrative.\u201d<\/p>\n One more thing<\/p>\n As Sunday\u2019s World Cup final between Argentina and Spain approached, a perfect storm of heat, humidity and smoke from Canada\u2019s wildfires appeared poised to overshadow the game in East Rutherford, N.J. FIFA officials discussed an emergency change of venue.<\/p>\n The day before the final, thunderstorms blew away<\/a> the worst of the smoke. Spain claimed victory in temperatures in the low 80s<\/a>, with relatively low humidity.<\/p>\n But nearly 20% of this year\u2019s World Cup matches took place in heat and humidity conditions that the players\u2019 union has deemed hazardous, an analysis by the Guardian found<\/a>.<\/p>\n The morning after the U.S. loss to Belgium in the World Cup\u2019s Round of 16, I spoke to<\/a> Dr. Bert Mandelbaum, chief medical officer for U.S. men\u2019s soccer and vice chair of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center\u2019s orthopedic surgery department.<\/p>\n He pointed out that virtually every aspect of the game degrades in the heat. Performance, recovery ability and decision-making erode. Artificial turf becomes intolerably hot, and the soil in natural grass can harden until it\u2019s like playing on concrete. Air molecules inside the ball expand, making it a harder and faster object whose trajectory is harder to predict.<\/p>\n![\"Aerial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784885612_474_.jpeg\")
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