Maybe it is the fact that in 1862 massive floods from 45 straight days of rain transformed the Central Valley into an inland sea that drove the California Legislature to relocate to San Francisco.

Or maybe it's because sunny beaches, cool Sierra slopes and expansive deserts can be seen and felt, all within a half-day's drive. Santa Ana winds and San Francisco fog figure prominently in our culture. For many reasons, Californians have a heightened sense of their special relationship to climate, an appreciation for how it changes from year to year, and a high awareness of the extremes that come with it.

On the national level, however, climate change science has been a challenging message to convey in the political arena. Politicians respond to immediate, often emotional, issues and are especially tuned to the timetables of legislative terms and news cycles.

Climate change is in many ways the opposite – a plodding sequence of events, dominoes falling one at a time only every 10 years or 100. Warnings of temperature rises that may amount to only a few degrees in 50 years do not inspire angst. The climate trend that is set in motion today might be recognized as serious only by a voter two generations hence.

But Californians have shown that they understand how important it is to understand climate and invest in research. Even through years of unsigned budgets, shutdowns and IOUs, we have still managed, wisely, to take the long view on one thing that really matters.

On Tuesday, some of the country's leading climate scientists will convene at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, to talk about what climate might look like in 50 years. Building upon decades of research, we're making new discoveries all the time. We know now that the force that flooded Sacramento in the winter of 1862 was an "atmospheric river," which channeled storms capable of dumping several Mississippi Rivers-worth of water on the state in a matter of days. We understand that a significant amount of climate change is inevitable, even if the global community rapidly curtails its greenhouse gas emissions. We know that if current trends continue, changes that future Californians will face will likely escalate and dangerous extremes will become much more likely.

We understand much better than we did even 10 years ago that by 2050, the state will see years with drastically diminished Sierra snowpacks. In fact, we can even put numbers to bracket this projection. By midcentury, if greenhouse gas emissions and associated climate warming continue at a high level, the occurrence of very low snow years will have doubled over today's levels, leaving us to struggle with the shortfall in our water supply.

There remain major holes in our knowledge that we need to plug, but the fact that we know as much as we do now is a testament to the foresight of California's leaders, who through the course of several administrations have acknowledged that we can't face our future blind.

The participants in our meeting aren't just scientists. They are also resource managers, utility executives, state agency leaders with whom scientists like me have developed an ongoing partnership. This reflects a successful investment, not only of money, that goes beyond traditional research projects. California scientists, public utilities, and state and municipal agencies are working to tune the science and make it digestible and useful as a planning tool.

They already use science to understand how to get more out of renewable energy, understand what components of the state's infrastructure should be first in line for an upgrade, and gauge how much people are going to need their air conditioners at night 10 years from now. All this is accomplished with a small charge in our electric bills that reduces the chance that a catastrophic event won't someday send utility rates into orbit.

Our meeting will produce a series of recommendations ahead of Gov. Jerry Brown's special conference on climate taking place Thursday in San Francisco. We are researchers and users of the research asking in unison for the governor to keep the flow of information going. Sound science and strong partnerships with California decision-makers provide a foundation for planning and adapting to climate and weather events that is vital to California's well-being.

It is imperative that we sustain this effort. We will no doubt be reminded why, repeatedly, over the next few decades.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Dan Cayan is a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego and the U.S. Geological Survey.

• Read more articles by Dan Cayan