As atmospheric rivers continue to pummel the state and reservoirs are filling beyond their historical levels, the Palmdale Water District is rolling back mandated water use restrictions.
The Board of Directors on Monday voted to change mandated water conservation measures to voluntary, removing fines and patrols for landscape watering outside the prescribed schedules.
It’s a race against the rain as Encinitas city workers try to stabilize a growing sinkhole on Lake Drive. Rainfall last Friday totaling 1.3 inches caused the pre-existing sinkhole on Lake Drive to expand.
Patricia Dunlap, who lives nearby said, “It’s getting bigger and bigger with more rains coming. It’s a scary thing.”
As the rainfall figures below show, San Diego County received heavy precipitation overnight and early Wednesday from a Pacific storm that was enhanced by moisture from the sub-tropics. The system also has kicked up 26 mph winds at San Diego International Airport. And it created fog that reduced the carrier Carl Vinson to a silhouette in San Diego Bay.
The National Weather Service said that an additional 0.50 inches to 0.70 inches could fall by Wednesday night.
The San Diego County Water Authority will host water leaders from throughout Southern California March 15 for the monthly meeting of the Colorado River Board of California. On Tuesday, March 14, before the formal meeting, CRB board members will tour projects in the region that promote water resiliency.
The CRB will consider the complex water supply issues facing the Southwest U.S. during its meeting. San Diego Congressman Scott Peters is also scheduled to address the CRB.
In the right light, Jeff Dollente seems to make the sun rise. Standing over a canal, he cranks a wheel as the sun ascends and the sky yawns off the dark.
Mr. Dollente doesn’t deliver the morning, but in southeastern California’s Imperial Valley, his job is just as big. He delivers Colorado River water – a vital resource at risk – to farms that feed the rest of the United States.
Another atmospheric river approaches this Tuesday. It is ranked on a scale of 2 to 3 … but what does that ranking mean and why do we have it?
And, as the climate crisis drives increasingly extreme weather, communicating just how extreme that weather actually is can also be challenging. From extreme heat to atmospheric rivers, weather hazard scales are no longer just for hurricanes and tornadoes.
The levee breach that left an entire California town underwater this weekend is putting a spotlight on how the state’s vital flood control infrastructure is being weakened by age, drought, climate change, rodents and neglect — leaving scores of communities at risk.
On Friday night, the swollen Pajaro River burst through the worn-down levee, flooding the entire town of Pajaro and sending its roughly 3,000 residents into what officials are now estimating to be a multi-month-long exile. A second breach was reported on Monday.
The intensity of extreme drought and rainfall has “sharply” increased over the past 20 years, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Water. These aren’t merely tough weather events, they are leading to extremes such as crop failure, infrastructure damage and even humanitarian crises.
The big picture on water comes from data from a pair of satellites known as GRACE, or Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, that were used to measure changes in Earth’s water storage — the sum of all the water on and in the land, including groundwater, surface water, ice, and snow.
An atmospheric river storm bearing down on California will drop more rain and snow this week, sparking fresh concerns about additional flooding and snowmelt in the already soaked state.
The storm, which originated near Hawaii, is expected to intensify Monday into Wednesday. It will create “considerable flooding impacts below 5,000 feet elevation across much of the California Coast and Central Valley and over the southern Sierra Nevada foothills,” the National Weather Service said.
Despite a rainy and snowy winter out west, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the reservoirs that provide water for 40 million Americans, are at record low levels due to the ongoing megadrought. Arizona is set to lose over 20% of its Colorado River water allotment this year alone. As Stephanie Sy reports, that’s leaving communities across the state scrambling to find alternatives.
