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Is Climate Change Showing Up In The Daily Weather Forecast? It’s Complicated

/in , /by /Grist by Zoya Teirstein

Early this month, scientists announced a surprising discovery: The “fingerprint” of climate change is now detectable in everyday weather. In fact, evidence of global warming can be found in the planet’s weather every day, minute, and second since 2012.

But wait —you, a person who actually paid attention in your high school atmospheric science class, say — weather and climate are not the same! Right you are, dear reader. Weather is what happens in the moment (rain passing through, or the current temperature outside). Climate is average weather over time.

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Cold, Fast-Moving Storm Bringing Rain, Snow To Southern California

/in , /by /The Orange County Register by City News Service

A cold, fast-moving storm out of the Gulf of Alaska worked its way Tuesday toward Southern California, where it was poised to hit Thursday and generate between three and five hours of moderate rain but is not expected to trigger mud slides or debris flows in burn areas, National Weather Service forecasters said.

In the San Gabriel Mountains, 4 to 8 inches of snow will fall above 5,500 feet and between 1 and 4 inches between 3,500 and 5,500 feet, said NWS meteorologist Rich Thompson in a telephone interview from his base in Oxnard in Ventura County.

 

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Officials Seeking FEMA Funds To Repair Problem Shasta County Dam

/in , /by /Jefferson Public Radioby Erik Neumann

Officials in Shasta County are preparing to apply for federal emergency management funds to repair a dam from which they can no longer release water, that officials say is in danger of flooding during a major storm event.

Twenty miles west of Redding, near the communities of Igo and Ono, the Misselbeck Dam holds back the Rainbow Lake reservoir. In 2018 the Carr fire burned up the vegetation surrounding the 12-acre reservoir.

 

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2019 Was A Record Year For Ocean Temperatures, Data Show

/in , /by /The New York Times by Kendra Pierre-Louis

Last year was the warmest year on record for the world’s oceans, part of a long-term warming trend, according to a study released Monday.

“If you look at the ocean heat content, 2019 is by far the hottest, 2018 is second, 2017 is third, 2015 is fourth, and then 2016 is fifth,” said Kevin E. Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and an author on the study

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Forever Litigated ‘Forever Chemicals’: A Guide To PFAS In Courts

/in , /by /Bloomberg Environmentby Ellen M. Gilmer

Court dockets are ballooning with litigation over PFAS, a vexing family of chemicals used in many consumer and industrial products.

Some types of the man-made per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are called “forever chemicals,” a shorthand for their ability to build up and stick around indefinitely in people and the environment.

Health risks of some types of PFAS have become clearer in recent years, prompting a rush to the courtroom by people exposed to the chemicals, utilities dealing with contamination, and shareholders facing the financial risks. Lawyers have compared the legal onslaught to litigation over asbestos, tobacco, and lead paint.

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Snow Levels Dipping And Widespread Rain Is On Tap For Southern California This Week

/in , /by /Los Angeles Times by Hannah Fry

Break out the umbrellas and hang onto those heavy coats because the region’s first significant winter storm of 2020 is expected to unleash rain and snow Thursday.

After what has been a mostly dry January, a chilly winter storm is expected to move into the northern portion of the state Tuesday before making its way down the coast to Los Angeles County by late Thursday morning.

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Study Shows Droughts Affecting So Cal Water Sources Six Times A Century

/in , /by /California Water News Daily

The University of Arizona recently announced results from a study that studied the annual growth rings of trees to reconstruct a long-term climate history and examine the duration and frequency of “perfect droughts” in Southern California’s main water sources. According to the research, severe droughts happened simultaneously in the regions that supply water to Southern California almost six times per century on average since 1500.

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Proposed Salton Sea Funding Doesn’t Address Primary Concerns

/in , /by /Imperial Valley Pressby Michael Maresh

EL CENTRO — Imperial County supervisors are well aware that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget, that would include $220 million for the Salton Sea and the New River, comes with a catch.

A cornerstone of Newsom’s proposal, which aligns with his Water Resilience Portfolio, is a new $4.75 billion climate resilience bond that he wants on the November ballot.

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Workforce Diversity Focus of ‘Women in Water’ Conference

/in , /by /Water News Network Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority
Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Career opportunities for women in the water and wastewater industry at every level are the focus of the third annual Women in Water Symposium January 16 at Cuyamaca College.

Vanessa Murrell, grant manager for the Center for Water Studies at Cuyamaca College, said the conference’s goal in its third year is to create a community of people with the interest and aptitude to take on what were previously considered non-traditional careers.

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As the Salton Sea Shrinks, it Leaves Behind a Toxic Reminder of the Cost of Making a Desert Bloom

/in , , /by /Food & Environment Reporting Network (New York, N.Y.)by Lindsay Fendt

It’s just past noon on a Wednesday, but the bar at the Ski Inn in Bombay Beach, California, is already packed. The crowd is mostly Canadian, snowbirds escaping to the desert spas and country club communities that dominate this southeastern corner of the state, just 50 miles from Mexico. Bombay Beach is not their destination, just a side trip to see the ruins of the once-famous party town.

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