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With Snow Piling Up In The Sierra, What Will It Take To End California’s Drought?

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joseph Serna and Paige St. John

The resort town of Phillips high in the Sierra Nevada has long been a barometer of California’s drought. Snow measuring station 3 in the El Dorado County town was where Gov. Jerry Brown came in April 2015 to announce major drought restrictions, using the dry, snow-less landscape as a stark backdrop. On Tuesday, Frank Gehrke of the California Department of Water Resources performed the manual measurement at the same spot, this time covered in three feet of snow. It measured just 53% of the seasonal average, but officials took that as further proof California’s six-year drought was easing.

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Yosemite Faces Possible Closure Amid Rain, Possible Flooding

/in /by /myMotherLode.com by Sabrina Biehl

Yosemite National Park expects so much rain, snow and possible flooding over the next several days and into the weekend park officials say they may close the whole park. Citing visitor and employee safety amid predictions for significant rainfall in Yosemite Valley that put the Merced river well above flood stage, park officials say that people planning trips to the park, beginning tomorrow, Thursday January 5, 2017, should make alternate plans as the park may close. A Yosemite area forecast is in our weather section here.

 

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State Mulls Converting Sewage To Drinking Water

/in /by /SF Weekly (San Francisco)by Joe Kukura

With the Bay Area experiencing a relatively wet and lush winter, it’s easy to forget that nearly half of California is still suffering from extreme and exceptional drought levels. That’s why the State Water Resources Control Board is moving forward on a revolutionary new plan to develop and adopt measures to convert recycled water into drinking water. People, realize that “recycled water” is just a more pleasant-sounding euphemism for wastewater, or sewage.

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Side Effect Of California’s Drought: More Climate Pollution

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Sammy Roth

Droughts are already getting longer and more severe because of human-caused climate change in the American Southwest and around the world. But the drought-climate connection goes both ways: California’s prolonged dry spell has also made climate change a little bit worse.

 

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Super Soaker This Weekend

/in /by /Record Net (Stockton)by Alex Breitler

Got outdoor plans this weekend? Might want to cancel them. Stockton could see its wettest day in more than two years on Sunday, and Saturday won’t be much better, as another atmospheric river drenches California from the Pacific Ocean.Somewhere north of 2 inches of rain is expected over the weekend, and that doesn’t even include the earlier storm that moved in Tuesday night and early this morning, bringing wind gusts expected to top 45 mph.

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Incoming Storms, Sierra Snow Expected to Help California Battle Drought

/in /by /NBC Bay Areaby Peggy Bunker

The several feet of snow expected in the Sierra this week is expected to considerably change the look of California’s drought map. At this time last year, 45 percent of the state was in an exceptional drought, which is the worst possible rating. Officials said only 18 percent of California currently remains dry.

 

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This Map Explains The Weather We Had In 2016

/in /by /The Washington Postby Angela Fritz, Laris Karklis and Tim Meko

Weather over the past year was extreme. It ranged from a historic blizzard to record-breaking heat. At times, it was deadly. This map explains nearly all of it: rain and drought — the yin and yang of U.S. weather in 2016. Even with a very strong El Niño, the vast majority of the West ended the year with below-average precipitation. In the Deep South, flash flooding threatened lives and property over and over. In the Southeast, an epic drought fueled deadly wildfires.

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California Snowpack Surveyed as Indicator of Drought

/in /by /Phys.Orgby Scott Smith

Surveyors will plunge poles into the Sierra Nevada snowpack near Lake Tahoe on Tuesday, taking the season’s first measurement by hand of the snow’s water content as California flirts with a sixth year of drought. What they find in the snowpack between now and April 1 will guide state water managers in the nation’s most populous state that also leads in production of farming. Electronic monitors in late December showed the snowpack’s water content at just 72 percent of normal despite heavy rain. That figure dipped even lower during the holiday weekend.

 

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Fitzgerald: A Drought Complete With Flooding

/in /by /Record Net (Stockton)by Michael Fitzgerald

Welcome to Drought Denier Corner, a home for crackpots like me who think the “drought,” at least as defined by the powers that be, is a bunch of baloney. Here. Put on this tin foil hat and hear me out. The dictionary defines drought as, “a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops.” By the common definition, then, a drought ends when the rains come. Big rains, at least. Well, they came.

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First Snow Survey Of The Season Begins Tuesday

/in /by /KTVU (Oakland)

The first snow survey of the season will take place in the Lake Tahoe area Tuesday morning. It’s viewed as a critical test of California’s water supply, after five years of drought. Surveyors will plunge poles into the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides roughly one third of California’s water. Tuesday’s snow survey comes amid hopes that the state’s water crisis may finally be coming to an end. There has been plenty of rain all across the state during the past three months. However, water experts say it is still way to early to declare an end to California’s long drought.

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