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California Storms Left Behind a ‘Generational Snowpack.’ What That Means.

/in , , /by /The Washington Postby Diana Leonard

California’s mountain snowpack is the largest it’s been in decades, thanks to a barrage of atmospheric rivers in late December into January. The snow is a boon for the state’s water supply but could also pose a flood risk as the season progresses.

Measurements completed last week show that Sierra Nevada snow water content is rivaling or outpacing the 1982-83 season, the biggest snow year in the past 40 years. Up to two feet of additional snow fell on the region this weekend.

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Opinion: The Fight Over the Colorado River is a 100-Year-Old Interstate Grudge Match

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Michael Hiltzik

Arizona was girding for war with California over the Colorado River.

The year was 1934 and the place was the construction site of Parker Dam, downstream from the nearly completed Hoover Dam.

Arizona Gov. Benjamin Baker Moeur, irked that a federally approved interstate compact had awarded California more water from the Colorado than he thought it deserved, dispatched a squad of National Guard troops to the river on a ferryboat to block the new dam’s construction.

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Ukiah to Expand Recycled Water Project, Offset a Whopping 50% of Water Use by Treating Wastewater

/in , /by /The Mendocino Voiceby Kate Fishman

The city of Ukiah has received a $53.7 million grant to expand its water recycling project across multiple schools and parks, enabling the city to offset 50% of its average water use with treated wastewater by fall of 2024.

Ukiah’s program falls under an overall goal by the State Water Resources Control Board to increase California’s use of recycled water, which according to the Volumetric Annual Report of Wastewater and Recycled Water stood at 731,586 acre-feet per year in 2021.

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California Plays ‘Hardball’ With Colorado River States Over Cutbacks

/in , , /by /The Hillby Sharon Udasin

A multistate quest to protect a dwindling Colorado River has devolved into a high-stakes battle pitting California against its neighbors.

At odds are two dueling proposals as to how seven states should apportion critical consumption cuts that could help save the lifeblood of the Western United States.

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In a Dramatic Spike, 36.3 Million Trees Died in California Last Year. Drought, Disease Blamed

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Nathan Solis

Roughly 36.3 million dead trees were counted across California in 2022, a dramatic increase from previous years that experts are blaming on drought, insects and disease, according to a report by the U.S. Forest Service.

The same survey for 2021 counted 9.5 million dead trees in the state, but the effects of last year’s dramatic die-off are more severe and spread across a wider range, according to the report released Tuesday.

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California Plans for the Good, the Bad and the Ugly About Snowmelt Runoff

/in , /by /Agri Pulseby Brad Hooker
Erratic climate swings—from drought to floods and back to dry conditions—are delivering less certainty to farmers for the coming irrigation season and a lot of misunderstanding about how much water is actually imported for food, electronics and other products.
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Opinion: Western States Play Game of Chicken Over Colorado River

/in , /by /CalMattersby Dan Walters

You would have to be at least a septuagenarian to remember “Rebel Without a Cause,” a 1955 movie that starred James Dean and depicted the lives of aimless teenagers.

The film’s most memorable scene was a game of chicken in which two boys raced cars side by side toward a cliff and the first one to bail out was the loser. The “winner,” however, died when his car hurtled over the cliff.

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Wet La Niña Winter Likely to Bring More Water Into Lake Powell

/in , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Colton Lochhead

One of the Colorado River’s two major reservoirs is expected to collect better than average runoff this year, thanks to an unusually wet La Niña pattern that dropped a deluge of snow up and down the basin.

Lake Powell, the nation’s second largest reservoir that sits on the border of Utah and Arizona, is expected to receive 117 percent of its average inflows as the heavy snowpack melts in the western Rockies during the all-important April through July time frame, said Cody Mosier, a hydrologist with the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.

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Why California is So Far Apart From Other States in Colorado River Water Cuts Plan

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James and Sean Greene

The ongoing dispute over Colorado River water comes down largely to math: How much water should each state and region lose as reservoir levels continue to decline?

California has one interpretation of how to divvy up the cuts, and six other states that depend on the river have a different formula.

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Atmospheric Rivers Aren’t Just a Problem for California. They’re Changing the Arctic, Too

/in , , /by /CNNby Rachel Ramirez and Laura Paddison

The Arctic is seeing a rapid decline in sea ice even during the cold winter months when it should be recovering from the summer melt. Scientists say that one often-overlooked factor is playing a bigger role than previously thought: Atmospheric rivers.

These long, narrow bands of moisture in the atmosphere transport warm air and water vapor from the tropics. They can extend for thousands of miles and dump rain and snow when they make landfall.

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