LOS ANGELES, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Nearly seven in ten Californians say they expect the recent extreme swings in the western U.S. state's weather to become more commonplace in the future due to climate change, according to a new poll released on Thursday.
The poll, conducted by the Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, showed that only 19 percent of the respondents believe the recent extreme swings in the weather will not likely to be repeated in the near future while another 12 percent have no opinion.
Significant flooding is ongoing in some areas in California, the most populous U.S. state, which has experienced a multi-year extreme drought.
The poll also found that nearly a third of Californians say that the past year's unusually wet weather, which produced heavy rains, record snowfalls and flooding in some areas, impacted themselves or their families either "a great deal" (8 percent) or "somewhat" (23 percent).
In addition, a sizeable proportion (40 percent) of those who reported being impacted a great deal say they are very concerned that they may need to move out of their area due to the risk of similar weather occurrences in the near future.
The findings come from the latest Berkeley IGS Poll of California registered voters conducted online among 7,465 voters from May 17 to May 22 in English and Spanish.
"The poll suggests that most California voters are taking the impact of extreme weather seriously and are concerned about the impact of climate change on their daily lives," said IGS Co-Director Eric Schickler in a news release.
