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El Niño Rainstorms Improving Wildfire Conditions Throughout California, Fire Agency Says

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby By Veronica Rocha

Higher-than-normal rainfall associated with El Niño has diminished the risk of wildfires in California for the next four months, according to a national fire agency report.

 

However, those same rains ultimately could trigger an uptick in grass fires at lower elevations because of a heavy grass crop expected in late spring, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center. The NICC helps oversee wildfire response efforts.

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California Cut Water Use 18.3% in December, Still Barely Meeting Gov. Brown’s Mandate

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby By Matt Stevens

As state water regulators consider extending drought restrictions though the fall, officials reported Tuesday that urban Californians had reduced their water use by 18.3% during December.

 

The savings, which are compared with December 2013 water usage levels, were the smallest in seven months of reporting and put California’s cumulative savings at 25.5%, down from 26.3% in November.

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Most of County Water Agencies Fall Short of December Conservation Targets

/in /by /KUSI

Most of the water agencies in San Diego County fell short of their state-mandated conservation targets in December, according to data released Tuesday by the state Water Resources Control Board.

 

The lagging savings totals reflected the state as a whole, which cut back by 18.3 percent in December, missing Gov. Jerry Brown’s order to reduce water use by 25 percent statewide.

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San Diego’s Oversupply of Water Reaches a New, Absurd Level

/in /by /Voice of San Diego by By Ry Rivard Quoted: Mark Weston and Mark Watton

San Diego’s overabundance of water during one of California’s worst droughts has reached a new, absurd level. The San Diego County Water Authority has dumped a half billion gallons of costly drinking water into a lake near Chula Vista.

 

Now that drinking water has been poured into a lake, the water must be treated a second time before humans can consume it. And here’s another kick in the gut. The drinking water that’s now been dumped into the lake includes desalinated water, some of the most expensive treated water in the world. Water officials will now have to spend even more money to make the once-drinkable desalinated water drinkable once again.

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State OKs Drought Conservation Credits

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby By Joshua Emerson Smith Mentioned: Carlsbad Desalination Plant

State officials on Tuesday extended emergency drought regulations through October while also preparing to ease restrictions on select water suppliers.

 

Responding to water districts’ concerns, the California Water Resources Control Board approved new rules that will allow the hundreds of residential water suppliers in the state to apply for reduced water conservation starting this spring. Residents are in the midst of a water-savings campaign that Gov. Jerry Brown mandated last year in response to one of the worst droughts in the state’s history.

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Researchers Fly into Heart of Biggest El Niño in a Generation

/in /by /Boston Globeby By Henry Fountain

A thousand miles south of Hawaii, the air at 45,000 feet above the equatorial Pacific was a shimmering gumbo of thick storm clouds and icy cirrus haze, all cooked up by the overheated waters below.

 

In a Gulfstream jet more accustomed to hunting hurricanes in the Atlantic, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were cruising this desolate stretch of tropical ocean where the northern and southern trade winds meet.

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California Weighs Extending Drought Conservation Orders

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by ABC News Fresno)by By Scott Smith

Following a welcomed parade of El Niño storms drenching drought-stricken California, state officials on Tuesday will decide whether to extend emergency conservation orders, and reveal how much water Californians saved in December.

 

The figures are expected to show that for a third straight month, Californians missed a mandate to use 25 percent less water. State regulators, however, say they are confident residents will meet the long-term goal that requires the savings over a nine-month period ending in February, a more important target.

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January Rainfall about Double What’s Normal

/in /by /ChicoER

It didn’t rain too heavily during January but it sure rained often, resulting in rainfall far above average for the month.

 

In Chico, 8.61 inches fell during the month at the Enterprise-Record weather station, nearly double the 4.86 inches normal for the month. The National Weather Service put the rain in Oroville for January at 7.18 inches, with 20.2 inches in Paradise. Red Bluff saw 13.69 inches and Redding, 12.68 inches. The Weather Service said rainfall amounts of 100 percent to 250 percent of normal were common across the area

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Effects of Drought for Forests and Rangelands

/in /by /AG Net West (Fresno)

The U.S. Forest Service today released a new report, Effects of Drought on Forests and Rangelands in the United States: A Comprehensive Science Synthesis, that provides a national assessment of peer-reviewed scientific research on the impacts of drought on U.S. forests and rangelands. This report will help the Forest Service better manage forests and grasslands impacted by climate change.

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UCSC Study: Drought Testing Limits of Hardy Ferns

/in /by /Santa Cruz Sentinelby By Samantha Clark

California’s unprecedented dry spell has tested the limits of drought-tolerant ferns, which carpet the forest floor underneath the West Coast’s iconic redwoods, according to a new study by UC Santa Cruz scientists.

 

“We’ve never seen a drought of this magnitude,” said co-author Jarmila Pittermann, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. “You’re used to seeing a green understory, but in the last four years without rain, they’re white or brown. They dried up.”

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