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Photos: See LA’s Night Sky Electrified By Phenomenal Lightning Show

/in , /by /Curbed Los Angelesby Jenna Chandler

Lightning dazzled Los Angeles last night, with nearly 6,000 lightning strikes recorded over Southern California. Earth Networks, a company that uses sensors to detect lightning, observed 5,923 lighting strikes and 14,326 lightning pulses (that’s when the lightning is in a cloud and doesn’t hit the ground) from 6 p.m. to midnight. Steve Prinzivalli, a meteorologist at Earth Networks, tells Curbed that those numbers are “pretty incredible,” and climate scientist Daniel Swain on Twitter described it as the “most spectacular winter lightning display in recent memory.”

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OPINION: One Rainy Season Doesn’t Mean California’s Drought Problems Are Over

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Patt Morrison

Drought? What drought? The big fear in the world of water management is that this big gulp of wet weather will lead some Californians to think that the drought is dead. Politicians from President Donald Trump to Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, who displayed a snowball on the Senate floor to “disprove” global warming, willfully try to conflate climate change with weather. But one rainy season is not California’s last-reel rescue from drought.

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Change At The Salton Sea Is Affecting Bird Populations

/in , /by /KPBSby Erik Anderson

California’s largest lake has long attracted visitors. Many go there year-round to see thousands of birds congregating around the lake and its nearby habitats, but the lake is changing and that’s changing bird populations. More than 400 different species have been recorded here and estimates put the daily bird population around the sea at more than 100,000. That’s great for bird watchers like Ryan Llamas. The Audubon Society member’s binoculars are pressed tightly against his eyes as he scans the open water.

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Oceanside Hosts World of Water Celebration March 23

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Oceanside, Calif. – Join the City of Oceanside on Saturday, March 23, 2019, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to experience Oceanside’s World of Water. This FREE, fun-filled, water-themed event will take place at the San Luis Rey Water Reclamation Facility, 3950 North River Road in Oceanside. Celebrate World Water Day by traveling through many activities to learn the ways the City of Oceanside works to provide its customers the world’s most precious resource – WATER!

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Plan To Protect Colorado River Still Isn’t Done. Now What?

/in , /by /The Associated Press

Another federal deadline passed Monday for seven states in the U.S. West to wrap up work on a plan to ensure the drought-stricken Colorado River can deliver water to the 40 million people and farms that depend on it. The states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — have been working for years on drought contingency plans. But Arizona and California have missed two deadlines set by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and still have work to do.

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Why California’s Droughts And Floods Will Only Get Worse

/in , /by /Popular Scienceby Ula Chrobak

The Golden State’s had a harsh winter. Between October 1 and March 3, most California weather stations across the state were reporting greater-than-normal amounts of precipitation. And the state’s snowpack has grown to be the fifth largest in 40 years, with up to 25 feet of powder in some places. It’s needed moisture after a six-year-long drought from 2011 to 2017 and last year’s dry winter. Snowpack and reservoirs are stocked right now. But persistent rain has flooded many areas, including towns along Northern California’s Russian River. In Guerneville, residents paddled around after the river swelled to 45 feet high. Rain, floods, and mudslides have also wrecked homes and roads in areas across the state.

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Department Of Water Resources Hits Pause On WaterFix

/in , /by /The Press (Brentwood, Calif.)

The real-world implications of Gov. Newsom’s rejection of the twin tunnels project became more apparent last week as the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation requested and were granted a 60-day stay of hearings with the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). “We agree that the SWRCB water rights hearing should be stayed while the state determines what project it wishes to pursue,” said Osha Meserve, a Sacramento-based environmental attorney representing counties, local agencies and environmental groups opposed to WaterFix. “We are urging an open and transparent process to assess alternatives to the twin tunnels concept rejected by the Governor that could be more readily implemented.”

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Santa Barbara County, Water Agencies Clash On Ending Drought Emergency Proclamation

/in , /by /Noozhawk (Santa Barbara)by Giana Magnoli

Local water agencies say both of these things are true: The drought is over for most of California, and southern Santa Barbara County has water shortages. Office of Emergency Management Director Robert Lewin recommended that the county Board of Supervisors terminate its proclamation of a local emergency due to drought conditions, which has been renewed every 60 days since January 2014. The drought emergency relates to climate conditions, and public peril and safety, and this winter’s rainfall amounts and snowpack indicate that the drought is over, he said at Tuesday’s supervisors meeting.

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Lake Oroville Continues To Rise As Hyatt Powerplant Releases Stay Steady

/in , /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Risa Johnson

Lake Oroville has risen by about 10 feet over the past few days while outflows from the Hyatt Powerplant have held steady. This comes as the state Department of Water Resources announced on Friday that releases from the powerplant were being increased from 1,750 cubic feet per second to 5,000 cfs. The lake level on Monday afternoon was 811 feet elevation, which is 65 percent of its total capacity. Ten-day projections show the lake reaching 835 feet on March 14, according to DWR. The department has said it does not anticipate that it will utilize the Oroville Dam spillway anytime soon; however, crews have been making preparations in case its use becomes necessary.

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Poway City Council Approves Water, Sewer Service Rate Increases

/in , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Melissa Adan

Daytime protests weren’t enough to stop the Poway City Council from approving a set of rate hikes on water and sewer services in the city. The proposal, which passed unanimously, calls for a 4.5-percent increase on the water commodity use rate, a 7.5-percent hike on the fixed water meter charge, and 3.25 percent increases on the sewer commodity rate and the sewer service charge. “What goes up never comes down in terms of taxes, or water,” Poway resident Jason Chynn said. “They just go up, up, up, and never come back down.”

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