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In parched southern Texas, a yearslong drought has depleted Corpus Christi’s water reserves so gravely that the city is scrambling to prevent a shortage that could force painful cutbacks for residents and hobble the refineries and petrochemical plants in a major energy port.

Experts said the city didn’t expect such a bad drought, and new sources of reliable water didn’t arrive as expected. Those problems arose as the city increased its water sales to big industrial customers.

As Corpus Christi continues a fierce fight against the impacts of record-breaking drought, what led to this point reflects the history of hundreds of years of water development, according to an academic expert.

While there are differences compared to some of the earlier political dynamics in the state — and while the stakes have grown greater — “when I first started seeing articles about the Corpus Christi situation, I was struck immediately by this sense that sometimes things never change,” said Kenna Archer, an associate professor of history at Angelo State University.

After two winters of La Niña, an official “El Niño Watch” is underway, the National Weather Service Climate Protection Center said Thursday.

In its latest ENSO Alert System Status report, the Climate Protection Center said there’s a 61% chance that an El Niño is “likely to emerge” between this May and June, and “persist through at least the end of 2026.”

The explosive growth in data centers is fueling concerns in California, as well as across the country, about water and energy use. Some have gone as far as to propose a water usage fee on data centers. However, others argue that data center water use is just a drop in the bucket compared to other uses or that most data centers are moving toward less water-intensive practices, such as reusing water in closed-loop systems.

To help us understand what we do and don’t know about California data centers and water use, we spoke with Dr. Marie Grimm, an environmental policy research fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment, about their new report “Regulating Data Center Water Use in California.”

Pasadena Water and Power announced that the city’s two-day-per-week outdoor watering schedule is now in effect through October 31 as part of the City of Pasadena’s ongoing Level 2 Water Supply Shortage Plan. This measure limits outdoor irrigation to conserve water during the dry season.

Under the schedule, residents and businesses with even-numbered addresses may irrigate their landscapes on Mondays and Thursdays, while those with odd-numbered addresses may water on Tuesdays and Fridays. All outdoor watering must occur before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m. Exceptions are made for hand-watering, tree maintenance, and irrigation systems that use low-flow drip emitters producing no more than two gallons per hour.