In this timely study, as they describe it, Hatchett et al. (2015) strove to determine whether the hydro-climatic conditions that occurred during the 2012-2015 (hereafter current) California-Nevada drought were “within the range of natural variability documented by paleo-proxy indicators,” which they hoped could lead to the “disentanglement of the relative roles of natural versus anthropogenic forcing factors as causative agents.” So what did they do? And what did they learn?

 

 

A spring storm dumped fresh snow to parts of the Sierra and delivered partly cloudy skies and gusty winds to the Sacramento region Monday, capping a weekend of hammock-worthy highs in the 70s.

Chain controls were in effect part of the day on Interstate 80 over Donner Summit. By midafternoon, 11 inches of snow had fallen over a 24-hour period at Northstar California Resort north of Lake Tahoe, said spokeswoman Marcie Bradley. That brought the snowfall total for the season at Northstar to 441 inches, she said.

 

 

 

El Niño, or the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, is an occasional warming event in the Pacific Ocean that can initiate weather-related havoc across the U.S. Now, it has a new cousin. By examining 38 years of weather, atmospheric scientists have identified an ocean temperature anomaly — the Pacific Extreme Pattern — that can predict droughts on the East Coast up to two months before they hit. The team plans to build an alert system based on these findings, which could allow cities to prep for life-threatening heat waves, while also reducing people’s electric bills

Congress is about to try again to help ease California’s drought. A handful of bills – some new, some held over from last year – will come up for debate in the weeks ahead.

The subject is as partisan as the presidential race, and a lot more complicated. That’s because, when you get politicians involved in water, the debate becomes fixated on righting perceived wrongs, and drifts irrevocably away from solving actual water supply problems. Such is the case with the present selection of bills before Congress, which come from both ends of the political spectrum.

 

 

 

Yes, the Bay Area got a lot of rain this winter. But was it enough to end the drought?

Sadly, no. But there’s good news—this winter was the best we’ve had in five years in terms of precipitation. Rainfall in most Bay Area cities is about 100 percent of normal. San Francisco has received 21 inches of rain this winter, up from 16 inches last year.And the state’s two biggest reservoirs, Oroville and Shasta, are now more than 80 percent full. Last March, they hovered between 50 and 59 percent.