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California’s 2016 Water Year drew to a close Friday, ending a fifth consecutive year marked by meager precipitation that fell more often as rain than snow. Record warm temperatures created an early and below-average runoff that was in large part absorbed by parched soil before ever reaching the State’s reservoirs. The water content of the California Sierra snowpack, often referred to as “the state’s largest reservoir,” flows each spring into a series of above ground storage reservoirs that essentially serve as California’s water savings accounts in order to meet the growing demands of an uncertain climate future.

Every October in California, leaves and temperatures fall, pumpkins dot the fields and college football season takes stride. But despite the trappings of autumn, October is California’s most dangerous month for wildfires, posing a deadly mixture of heavy seasonal winds, unpredictable weather patterns and bone dry vegetation. If history is a guide, the Loma fire, which began burning through a remote corner of the Santa Cruz Mountains on Sept. 25, may not be the end of the Bay Area’s fire threats for the year. It may just be the beginning.

This summer, as temperatures soared and depleted groundwater turned the San Joaquin Valley into a collection of sinkholes, state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, put forth legislation to fast-track conservation of underground water supplies.

The proposal was modest: Delay drilling in overdrafted basins until the state’s new groundwater law takes hold in earnest. The bill squeaked through the Senate. Then the agricultural lobbies and the California Chamber of Commerce put it out of its misery.

Gov. Jerry Brown this week signed a bill by Assemblyman James Gallagher to expedite construction of water storage projects, such as the proposed Sites Reservoir in Colusa and Glenn counties.

The new law will allow water storage construction projects to utilize alternative delivery methods for procurement.

One of my fondest memories growing up in Hawaii was Hurricane Nina, which wasn’t very significant in the history books, but it left an impression on me. Torrential rains and heavy winds knocked down banana trees and power lines, and took out water mains. We didn’t have running water for part of the time – my dad drove down the hill to fill buckets from a water truck. Mom taught us how to take baths in buckets: she boiled water on the stove and mixed in cold water until the temperature was just right.