The city of Napa is set to consider an increase to water rates for the first time in two years to cover the increasing costs of providing service.
The Napa City Council will hold a hearing Nov. 7 to adopt the new rates. If approved, they would be effective Jan. 1 and customers likely would see the impact on bills in March and April, said Joy Eldredge, deputy city utilities director.
Less than one week until California’s new water year begins, experts say the state is nearly free of drought — but there is no guarantee that another wet winter is soon to arrive.
The state, according to the Sept. 19 U.S. Drought Monitor, is 93% free of drought, a big improvement since measuring at 72% drought-free three months ago.
El Niño conditions continue to strengthen and some may see the return of an active winter. But could Northern California see any impacts?
In a recent El Niño forecast by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there is a greater than 95% chance that El Niño continues across the Northern Hemisphere through the winter into 2024. The chance of a “strong” El Niño has also increased from 66% in August to now 71% in September.
Some states in the arid West are looking to invest more money in water conservation. Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico have agreed to re-up a water conservation program designed to reduce strain on the Colorado River. Those states, which represent the river’s Upper Basin, will use money from the Inflation Reduction Act to pay farmers and ranchers to use less water.
El Niño has arrived, and the climate pattern is likely to bring above-average moisture to the southern U.S. this winter.
El Niño is one of two climate patterns that greatly impact Earth’s weather. La Niña recently culminated in the spring, ending a multiyear period in which the pattern influenced the weather. El Niño started in June, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) most recent update has identified El Niño as having high odds of being historically strong.
That means parts of California could see another wet winter, a welcome weather pattern as many of the state’s lakes and reservoirs continue to recover from a years-long drought. But an El Niño year doesn’t guarantee excess moisture in Southern California.
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have created a searchable atlas that compiles regional research and efforts to deal with water scarcity and drought.
The map, called the Water Adaptation Techniques Atlas, was developed by the agency’s Southwest and California Climate Hubs and so far contains 183 case studies from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah.
Rainy weather moved through the Northstate a little earlier than a normal season on Monday.
Deep in the bowels of Idaho’s Brownlee Dam, Neal Lincoln is ready to offer a demonstration.
Almost 40 feet below the surface of the Snake River — whose waters originate in Yellowstone National Park, then cascade down the Rocky Mountains and course across Idaho — Lincoln makes a call to the power plant control room. The narrow hallway where we stand waiting is chilly, the air dank and the floor covered with leakage from the river.
Fall has only just begun, but it’s not too soon to look ahead to winter, especially since this one may look drastically different than recent years because of El Niño.
This winter will be the first in a few years to feel the effects of the phenomenon, which has a sizable impact on the weather during the coldest months of the year.
Drought is a regular event in California. In recent decades, California has experienced five prolonged drought periods (1976-77, 1987-1992, 2007-09, 2011-16, 2020-22). Urban water agencies have responded with investments in supply and demand management measures, which have made California’s cities more resilient to drought effects. What motivated these investments?
