California needs an average of three atmospheric rivers annually to reach its average yearly rainfall. So far this year, the state has seen an incredible 46 atmospheric rivers. This intense rainfall has pushed much of California out of longstanding drought conditions. California Ag Today spoke with Steve Johnson, a private meteorologist for farmers in California. We discussed atmospheric rivers (AR) and the abundance of rain California has seen in late winter and early spring.

In 1994 an immigrant from Thailand purchased 720 acres near Bakersfield. He intended to grow vegetables and began preparing to plant his crops. At that point, federal and state agents descended by air and ground to arrest him and hauled away the equipment. They said he was destroying the environment of the endangered kangaroo rat, and could not farm its natural habitat. In Northern California and Oregon, environmentalists are destroying dams on the Klamath River for fish. They denied farmers water for irrigation, reducing farming and all related businesses.

A case in point is how the state Department of Water Resources has handled Lake Oroville for years. It continues despite considerable public and political pressure since the spillway collapse. Two developments last week perfectly illustrate the point. One involves awarding a nine-figure bid to a company to fix the spillway without any detail about what the company is actually doing. The other involves an independent review of what went wrong, which takes on added weight because the promised review by the government is nonexistent so far.