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Denver Still Without Snow but Climatologists Say They’re More Concerned by Snowpack Levels Out West

/in , , /by /The Denver Postby Conrad Swanson

With each passing, snowless day, Denver extends its new record of the latest date at which the first measurable snow falls, busting through the old record of Nov. 21, set in 1934.

Climatologists are watching as the record climbs, estimating Denver’s dry spell could last until early December. But that’s not nearly as worrisome as the lagging snowpack levels in southwest Colorado, they say, specifically in the Sangre de Cristo, San Juan and San Miguel mountains.

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Opinion: Drought Has Big Impacts on California Agriculture

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Dan Walters

As California experiences a second year of drought, with no end in sight, the effects on California’s largest-in-the-nation agricultural industry are profound and perhaps permanent.

State and federal water agencies have cut deliveries to some farmers to zero while others, thanks to water rights dating back more than a century, still have access to water.

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Water Restrictions Coming to Bakersfield to Address Drought

/in , , /by /Bakersfield.comby Sam Morgen

Bakersfield’s two largest water providers will soon implement new restrictions to head off the potentially dire impacts of an extended drought.

On Dec. 14, the city of Bakersfield and California Water Service plan to limit the days customers can use water for outdoor landscaping. Other restrictions, like no longer automatically serving drinking water at restaurants, will also go into effect as officials attempt to meet or exceed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call to reduce water usage by 15 percent.

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California Remains in Precarious Water Predicament

/in , , /by /Fox KTVUby Tom Vacar

October was a welcome water wonderland, but November was pretty much a dry bust for the Golden States. Was California’s wet October a sucker punch to the state’s all important reservoirs?

“Historically, 1976, which was historically dry, started off with a wet October, so we’re not counting our chickens yet,” said East Bay Municipal Utilities District Public Information Officer Andrea Pook.

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How Dry Will 2022 Be?

/in , , /by /California Water Blogby Jay Lund

Last year, Northern California had very little precipitation in October and November, and we wondered if California was entering into a multi-year drought. Today, we know – last year became the 3rd driest year on record for northern California, in terms of precipitation.

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Slow It, Spread It, Sink It: Harvesting Rainwater in Your Garden Helps With Drought Recovery

/in , , /by /Recordnet.comby Kathy Grant

The rainy season can be a mixed blessing.

If your home garden landscape is well designed to maximize rainwater storage, then rain is a blessing. If your landscape is poorly designed, or has too much impervious surfaces, then rain can be a curse.

Whatever your situation, however, take heart! Small adjustments can be made to prepare for the next storm, though some projects will take longer and require work done in the dry season.

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Investors Are Buying Up Rural Arizona Farmland to Sell the Water to Urban Homebuilders

/in , , /by /AZ Centralby Ian James Geoff Hing

In fields on the Arizona-California border, farmers draw water from the nearby Colorado River to grow alfalfa, irrigating crops as they have for decades.

That could change soon. An investment company has purchased nearly 500 acres of farmland and wants to strip it of its water and send it 200 miles across the desert to a Phoenix suburb, where developers plan to build thousands of new houses.

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Recycled Water Can Boost Sustainable Agriculture — if We Get Over the ‘Yuck’ Factor

/in , , /by /The Washington Postby Chesney McOmber and Christine Kirchhoff

Delegates and activists from nearly 200 countries returned from the COP26 global environmental forum in Glasgow, Scotland, with a long list of climate-related promises and targets to discuss and implement. While many countries made a renewed commitment to climate-resilient and sustainable agricultural systems, some groups accused leaders at COP26 of not doing enough to improve water security globally.

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Here’s What Brought King Salmon Back to Bay Area Rivers

/in , /by /The Mercury Newsby Lisa M. Krieger

Autumnal rain has sent a surge of Chinook salmon swimming up Bay Area creeks, a sharp reversal in fortune for an iconic species that has struggled after years of drought.

A living link between our mountains and coast, the fish responded to late October’s fierce atmospheric river by rushing up the region’s once-parched rivers, say biologists, frequenting spots where they’ve never been seen.

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SFPUC Calls For 10% Voluntary Reduction In Water Use As It Declares Water Emergency

/in , , /by /CBS 5 Bay Area

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is urging nearly 3 million water customers throughout the Bay Area to cut water usage by 10%, as it declares a water shortage emergency due to the ongoing drought.

“With California still experiencing devastating drought and the uncertainty around this rainy season, we need to make tough decisions that will ensure that our water source continues to be reliable and dependable for the future,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement Tuesday.

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