If Bay Area residents didn’t take time to appreciate Wednesday’s overnight dousing, it seems it’s too late. It’s all we’re going to get until 2021, forecasters say. Following the much-needed downpour that led to Thursday morning’s soaked roadways, an unusually dry holiday season lies ahead.
To Catherine Coleman Flowers, this is “holy ground”: the place where her ancestors were enslaved and her parents fought for civil rights and she came of age. Here, amid the rich, dark earth and emerald farm fields, she is home.
Yet this ground also harbors a threat, one that will worsen as the planet warms.
For decades, the people of this rural county 30 miles south of Montgomery have struggled with waste. Municipal sewage systems do not extend to this farming community, and many residents cannot afford septic systems; their waste flows directly into ditches or streams. Even those with septic tanks find that they often fail in the dense, waterlogged soil. On rainy days, toilets won’t flush and foul effluent burbles up into bathtubs and sinks.
A team led by University of Oregon geologist Rebecca Dorsey has published two papers that provide new insights into the origins of the Colorado River, using data from ancient sedimentary deposits located east of the San Andreas fault near the Salton Sea in Southern California.
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Deb Haaland, the freshman representative from New Mexico, to lead the Interior Department, making history by selecting the first Native American to oversee the agency that manages millions of acres of federal land and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to a person familiar with the decision.
Sewage data analyzed in Silicon Valley wastewater treatment plants confirms that the latest wave of coronavirus infections is sharply worse than the ones in the spring and summer.
Officials in Santa Clara County have been routinely testing solid waste samples in sewage to detect levels of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 as part of a project funded by Stanford University.
The San Diego region’s water and wastewater agencies have a long tradition of supporting holiday charitable giving to a wide array of nonprofit services. The effort continues in 2020 with no slowdown despite the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
The nation’s climate scientists say November was warmer than usual, and it was yet another month in a pattern of rising global temperatures. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tracks global temperatures and researchers say the warming trend is continuing.
Last week’s storm did little to ease the drought in Arizona’s reservoirs. But there’s still plenty of winter left.
The Bureau of Reclamation makes two-year projections, based on weather and water levels in Colorado River reservoirs, and its most recent projections have been dire.
That could set the stage for an Arizona water shortage in 2022. Snowpack in the mountains is now 69% of normal, but Patti Aaron, a spokeswoman for the bureau, says a little snow could go a long way.
The United States has some of the safest drinking water in the world. But its water supply is facing a new challenge — a slimy growth inside pipes that is encouraging outbreaks of illness responsible for over 7 million illnesses and 6,000 deaths every year.
Santa might be able to lose the heavy red coat when he makes his rounds in the Southland, and he probably won’t need an umbrella either.
The extended outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration favors above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation in the Los Angeles region from Dec. 24 through Dec. 30.
