You are now in California and the U.S. Media Coverage category.

Thirsty Crops and Vulnerable Families Vie for California’s Precious Water

When Carolina Garcia’s well began pumping sand and air instead of water in 2016, she didn’t know where to turn.

The Garcias had been living in Tombstone Territory, a quiet four-street community in California’s San Joaquin Valley, for 10 years. In the middle of the state’s historic drought, many of the farms surrounding Tombstone Territory had installed new wells and deepened existing ones. Despite being just two miles from the Kings river, Tombstone was drying up.

Garcia, her husband and four children spent four days without water that first time. They resolved to lower their water pump. It worked for a few months – but then, again, sand and air. When they repaired it again, they were told the new fix would only buy them a couple more years.

Why Does the Weather Stall? New Theories Explain Enigmatic ‘Blocks’ in the Jet Stream

It was the summer of 2003 in Europe, and, for a while, it seemed as if Earth’s weather system had broken down. For weeks a huge mass of air stalled over the continent, slowly subsiding and suppressing cloud formation, leaving day after day of brilliantly clear skies. The mercury rose, and a record-breaking heat wave gripped countries including France and Germany, causing 70,000 deaths. Then, as abruptly as it set in, the persistent atmospheric block eased, and high winds brought relief.

Few weather phenomena are as widely experienced—but poorly understood—as an atmospheric block. When a block arises, typically at the western edge of a continent, the jet stream splits, trapping a blob of seemingly static air thousands of kilometers across. Such blocks can last for weeks, and drive heat waves, drought, and winter cold snaps.

San Francisco Could See Its First Rainfall Since January as a Potentially Wetter California Weather Pattern Takes Shape

Much needed rain will finally return to California and will likely end a month-plus dry streak in San Francisco and Sacramento. Dry conditions have prevailed across most of California since late January due to the upper-level pattern.  A strong area of high pressure aloft near California has pushed the jet stream and storm track northward into the Pacific Northwest.

The persistence of this pattern has resulted in drought conditions during the wet season. Nearly 70% of the Golden State is abnormally dry, and about a third of the state is in moderate drought, according to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Nevada Supreme Court Hears Arguments About the State’s Role in Protecting Water for the ‘Public Trust’

The Nevada Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case weighing how state regulators should consider “public trust” values — the environment or recreation — when the sustainability of lakes or rivers could be harmed by how the state has allocated water rights.

The questions before the court stem from ongoing federal litigation over the use of water in the Walker River. But the case has received significant attention because it could provide an opportunity for the state’s top court to bolster legal protections for the environment. At the same time, agricultural groups, businesses and municipal water users fear a broad ruling could upend their existing water rights.