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When Will California Have Its Next Drought? JPL May Soon Offer a Water Crystal Ball

/in , , /by /NBC Los Angelesby Helen Jeong and Belen De Leon

A new satellite by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will soon provide more precise — and vital — data on how much water is available on Earth’s surface, allowing better forecasts for extreme weather conditions such as droughts and floods, and helping water resources managers and farmers to get a better picture of their water budget.

The international Surface Water and Ocean Topography or SWOT mission was launched in December 2022 from Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

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How America’s Fastest Growing City is Trying to Secure Its Water Future

/in , , /by /ABC Newsby Patrick Linehan

Rob Ford was watering his hay last October at his small Washington County, Utah, ranch when he realized the flow was weaker than usual. He called the irrigation manager who monitors the water levels.

“The water is really weak,” Ford said he told the irrigation manager. “Is that about what we are expecting today?”

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Opinion: Climate Change is Here. It’s Time Californians Stopped Clinging to the Past

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

So says Matthew Broderick in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and he might as well be talking about California these days. As the planet continues to heat up, the state’s landscapes, watersheds and weather are shifting so fast it can be difficult to keep track.

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Late-Season Storm Brings More Snow to the Sierra Nevada

/in , , /by /AP News

The winter that wouldn’t quit showed up again in the Sierra Nevada region of California and Nevada on Tuesday.

The fast-moving, blustery storm wasn’t expected to last long, but it was enough to require chain controls on some trans-Sierra highways and add to staggering snowfall totals left by an exceptional series of winter storms.

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Striking Before-and-After Satellite Photos Show the Great California Snowmelt Underway

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Terry Castleman

As California’s wet winter has given way to warmer spring weather, the state’s record snowpack has begun to melt.

Though the accumulated snow still measures 249% of normal as of April 18, new satellite photos show that the white blankets enveloping mountains across the state have started to recede.

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Opinion: Imperial Valley Nears Day of Reckoning for Use of Distressed Colorado River

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Dan Walters

When white settlers forayed into what came to be known as the Imperial Valley at the dawn of the 20th century, they found a barren desert in California’s southeastern corner, unpopulated except for a few members of the Kamia clan of the Kumeyaay tribe.

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You — Yes, You — Are Going to Pay for the Century-Old Mistake That’s Draining the Colorado River

/in , , /by /Voxby Benji Jones

An hour east of San Diego, there’s a lonely stretch of dry, barren land. There’s not much here but sand, dirt, and some wiry shrubs.

But keep driving east and the landscape suddenly shifts.

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Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Ends Drought Emergency

/in , /by /The Press Democrat by Emma Murphy

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has ended the local drought emergency it declared two years ago, but officials are encouraging residents to continue conserving water.

The board’s unanimous vote came Tuesday and accompanied a series of measures to continue the county’s water conservation and drought preparation efforts.

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Water Supply Beneath the Surface: Why Groundwater Matters

/in , /by /NBC 4by David Biggar

When we talk about California’s water, we often think of what we can see: a snowpack, reservoirs to hold water, and aqueducts to deliver water to communities throughout the state.  There is another source of water for California, and it sits deep under our feet.  It’s called groundwater.

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California’s Strategy Fails as Feds Pressure States to Conserve Colorado River Water

/in , , /by /Fronterasby Ron Dungan

The Department of Interior has indicated that if states don’t cooperate on dividing Colorado River water, more cuts may be on the way.

The agency indicated that California could also face cutbacks, which means that the state’s wait-and-see strategy may have fallen short.

California has senior water rights to the Colorado River, and so far, that has worked in its favor.

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