Like our changing climate and its many impacts on our communities, economy and environment; like the collapse of critical infrastructure; like the humanitarian homelessness crisis on our streets and the housing shortage driving it; like so many other slow-motion disasters that have befallen us, the warning signs have been unmistakably clear.
After weeks of uncertainty, forecasters say an incoming California heat wave will trigger rapid snowmelt on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada and cause more flooding in portions of the San Joaquin and Owens valleys this week.
Temperatures in Central California are forecast to climb into the high 80s and mid-90s beginning Wednesday and into the weekend, with the potential for some areas to approach daily records.
A large release of water from Lake Powell began Monday morning. It’s water that will eventually end up in Lake Mead near Las Vegas after a two-day journey through the Grand Canyon where it will help restore sandbars and beaches while moving sediment downriver.
El Niño is likely next winter and that could play an important role in the weather in parts of storm-weary California and the West.
But there are some important caveats and stubborn myths about this that also need to be addressed.
When rain storms pummel Sacramento, a city surrounded by levees, crews work all hours of the night to prevent flooding.
They monitor, control and maintain the city’s more than 100 stormwater lift stations, which residents depend on to pump water into creeks, canals, or the Sacramento or American Rivers.
After its first committee hearing, Assembly Bill 1337 was amended last week, which could be the opening salvo of a monumental political and legal war over who controls access to water in California – an issue that stretches back to the state’s founding in 1850.
Ron Caetano is packed and ready to go. His family photos and valuables are in the trailer and he’s put food in carry totes. He moved the rabbits and chickens and their automatic feeders to higher ground.
The Bureau of Reclamation released its 24-Month Study on Thursday, April 20, which includes an increase to downstream flows from Lake Powell to Lake Mead of up to 9.5 million acre-feet (maf) this water year, which runs from (October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023.
According to a press release from the Bureau of Reclamation, Glen Canyon Dam’s annual release volume for water year 2023 was initially set at 7.0 maf, based on the August 2022 24-Month Study, and is now projected to increase to up to 9.5 maf because of high snowpack this winter and projected runoff in the Colorado River Basin this spring.
Just west of this normally dusty prison town, a civic nightmare is unfolding: Tulare Lake, a body of water that did not exist just two months ago, now stretches to the horizon — a vast, murky sea in which the tops of telephone poles can be seen stretching eerily into the distance.
California’s ongoing floods and very wet year overall will continue to grab headlines, provide great pictures, and break some local records, but overall this year is unlikely to be truly extreme from historical or broader water policy and management perspectives. It can still be a very useful wet year, beyond just having lots of water.
