These are not good times for Governor Brown’s Delta Tunnels (WaterFix) proposal. The twin 40-foot-diameter, 30-mile-long tunnels would harvest Sacramento River water before it flows through the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. A vast majority of this water would be sent to Big Ag operations like The Wonderful Company in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. It will destroy the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.
It’s gone. The so-called Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, also known as The Blob, once perched off the Northwest coast blocking all storms like a football team’s defensive line, has dissipated, said Bill Patzert, climatologist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. Many climatologists believed this was the main reason for the lack of rainfall in Southern California, making the past five years the driest in Southern California history as measured from downtown Los Angeles.
State water officials are saying it’s too soon to know whether this winter will deliver enough rain. But on Jan. 3, they expect to have a better idea of whether the state is headed into another year of drought. The Department of Water Resources will conduct its first media-oriented manual snow survey of Water Year 2017 at 11 a.m. next Tuesday, Jan. 3, at Phillips Station, just off Highway 50 near Sierra-at-Tahoe Road approximately 90 miles east of Sacramento.
Pesident-elect Donald Trump has made job creation and retention a heavy priority. He doesn’t feel constrained either by establishment criticism or by what past presidents have done. Given this history, Gov. Jerry Brown’s push for his $16 billion twin tunnels project may not be the only big water headline next year; 2017 could see a host of historic — and risky — changes in how California divvies up its water.
The California Department of Water Resources announced that electronic readings of the Sierra Nevada snowpack Tuesday pegged its statewide water content at 10.5 inches, 72 percent of the Dec. 27 average. Manual readings, which supplement the department’s electronic data, will be taken on dozens of snow courses during a 10-day period around Jan. 1. The 2017 water year began with above-average rainfall in October in all three Sierra Nevada regions monitored continuously by the Department of Water Resources.
It’s too soon to declare an end to California’s five-year drought despite the heaviest rain in three decades falling early in the wet season, officials said Tuesday. The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides roughly one-third of California’s water supply, measures at 72 percent of normal for water content, according to the state’s Department of Water Resources’ electronic monitors.
It could be a wet, wet New Year’s Day in Southern California. But Pasadena’s enviable record of dry Rose Parades should stand, thanks to a “Never on Sunday” rule dating back to the 19th century, officials said Tuesday. A cold front from the north should bring rain to Los Angeles on Saturday, stretching into Sunday, Jan. 1, the National Weather Service forecast. But for only the 15th time in its 128-year history, the Rose Parade will be moved to Monday, Jan. 2, sparing thousands of spectators a soggy vigil.
For the first time in a half-dozen years, water flowed over Canyon Lake’s dam in the last few days, rushing downstream into Lake Elsinore. “Watching the water come over the dam on Christmas Day and flow into the lake was quite the Christmas miracle for us,” Mayor Bob Magee said. Observers hope the influx — coupled with more potential storms such as one forecast for later this week — will rescue Southern California’s largest natural freshwater body from a severe decline brought on by the region’s prolonged drought.
It’s too soon to declare an end to California’s five-year drought despite the heaviest rain in three decades falling early in the wet season, officials said Tuesday. The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides roughly one-third of California’s water supply, measures at 72 percent of normal for water content, according to the state’s Department of Water Resources’ electronic monitors.
Lake Mead’s water levels this year fell to a near all-time low in the midst of a 16-year drought throughout the Southwestern U.S., prompting discussion at a national conference last week. The Colorado River Water Users Association met last week in Las Vegas for an annual conference, where guests — including Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Colorado Gov.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
