The Poway City Council will discuss the potential restoration of one of its watersheds, the Los Peñasquitos Lagoon, at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The council will be asked to direct staff on how it wants to move forward with its involvement in a restoration project of salt marshes in the lagoon. The project is part of a joint-agency effort to reduce sediment in the watershed.
The world’s oceans reached their hottest level in recorded history in 2020, supercharging the extreme weather impacts of the climate emergency, scientists have reported.
More than 90% of the heat trapped by carbon emissions is absorbed by the oceans, making their warmth an undeniable signal of the accelerating crisis. The researchers found the five hottest years in the oceans had occurred since 2015, and that the rate of heating since 1986 was eight times higher than that from 1960-85.
In 2020, Californians endured the hottest August, September and October since 1895. Climate scientists warn the trends are evidence of a warming planet. Rising temperatures combined with less rain and high winds have worsened the chance of extreme fire weather.
Eco-friendly projects designed to improve water quality and increase access to parks while addressing social issues in surrounding communities are among the goals of an updated master plan to revitalize the Los Angeles River, released Wednesday.
The stage is finally set for years of talking to be translated into actual clean drinking water for potentially thousands of San Joaquin Valley residents. But activists fear the effort will flop before the curtain rises if more isn’t done to engage the people who are drinking that water. The issue is nitrate, which is rife the valley’s groundwater and considered dangerous for infants and pregnant women.
Encinitas, Calif. — Today, board director Larry Watt presided over Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s first meeting of 2021 as president.
OMWD’s board unanimously elected to take new seats and selected Mr. Watt for a third term as president. Initially appointed to the board in 2011, Mr. Watt represents Division 2 of OMWD’s service area, which includes portions of the cities of Carlsbad and Encinitas. He previously served as president from 2013 through 2014 and from 2017 through 2018.
People around the world know San Diego for its beautiful, sunny, and mild weather. San Diego residents know our daily weather has more variety than visitors might imagine.
Climate is defined as the average weather conditions in an area over a long period, generally 30 years or more. German climate scientist Wladimir Koppen first divided the world’s climate into six regions in the early 1900s.
Since then, U.S. climate zones have been defined in more detail. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines climate zones according to the lowest average temperature in the region. You may also be familiar with the 24 climate zones identified in Sunset Magazine’s iconic Sunset Western Garden Book. The book is now out of print, but is available online as an interactive edition. Existing print copies from the last edition printed in 2012 are prized heirlooms.
Devoted gardeners still follow the 24 climate zones featured in the guide. This is based on the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) adoption of a similar map identifying 24 climate zones.
San Diego County’s geography falls within six of the 24 CIMIS climate zones. Photo: CIMIS
Depending on the amount of rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind, shade, and the nature of the soil, water in the ground evaporates at different rates. When evaporation is higher, the soil becomes dry more quickly.
Evapotranspiration (ET) is the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces, and by transpiration from plants.
Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo) is a baseline formula. All your plant water needs are measured against this baseline in a complex series of measurements and calculations.
In metropolitan San Diego County, our annual ETo rate increases as you move inland, meaning the soil becomes dry more quickly.
Fortunately, we don’t need to worry about making these calculations on our own. CIMIS maintains a statewide system of weather stations and reference plots. From these, it has identified the six main ET Zones in San Diego County.
Understanding your ETo zone and gardening climate zone are important first steps toward deciding how much water your landscaping will need. Working against the ETo and gardening climate zones can greatly increase your need for irrigation.
Learn more about your ETo climate zone’s specifics and gardening microclimate on the California Irrigation Management Information System website.
This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook available at SustainableLandscapesSD.org. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.
The regulatory pendulum is expected to swing toward stricter Clean Water Act enforcement, though experts say the Biden administration’s changes probably won’t be immediate. Farmers and environmentalists have been in a political tug-of-war over the law’s scope for years, largely due to ambiguous legal interpretations of the statute. While Democrats will now have power over Congress, their majority is too slim to make changes to the law, said Don Parrish, the American Farm Bureau Federation’s senior director of regulatory relations.
2021 presents opportunities for decisive and positive action, including the launch of the United Nations’ Decade on Ecosystem Restoration which reinforces the importance of healing degraded ecosystems around the world before it’s too late. It gives us great hope to know that California is committed to leadership through investment and sharing lessons learned from decades of experience. Our diverse ecosystems, abundant natural resources and a mild climate have helped attract millions of residents and developed California’s world-class economy.
In an increasingly hot and crowded world, clean water is becoming a precious commodity. Two thirds of the global population will have problems accessing fresh water by 2025, and removing salt and contaminants from the oceans and groundwater is one way to slake humanity’s thirst. Today’s large desalination plants, though, cost millions of dollars to build. Most use reverse osmosis, which forces seawater through salt-blocking membranes.
