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New Scale Will Measure Atmospheric Rivers In California From 1 To 5, Like Hurricanes

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

Marty Ralph was sitting in a San Francisco restaurant a couple of years ago when the morning forecast came on the TV, showing the typical weather symbols indicating what the week ahead would bring: a sun, a cloud, a rainy cloud and a darker, more ominous rainy cloud. Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, knew that at the end of the week, an intense atmospheric river storm was coming through the area. But he didn’t think the TV meteorologists could convey that very well with the icons on the screen. So he and a team of researchers got to work creating a ranking system that would be more helpful.

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Will Trump’s California Water Plan Send More To Republican Farmers And Short Democratic Cities?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

While campaigning for president in 2016, Donald Trump promised a cheering Fresno crowd he would be “opening up the water” for Central Valley farmers who’d been victimized by “insane” environmental rules to protect fish. Trump took one of the most aggressive steps to date to fulfill that promise Tuesday by proposing to relax environmental regulations governing how water is shared between fish and human uses throughout the Central Valley. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released an 871-page “biological assessment” of conditions in the Delta that it said is designed to “maximize water supply and delivery” while maintaining protections for fish.

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All Yosemite Roads Closed; 7 Feet Of New Sierra Nevada Snow

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Paul Rogers

All roads in and out of Yosemite National Park were closed Tuesday due to heavy snow and fallen trees, following four days of winter storms that blanketed the Sierra Nevada mountains. Some ski resorts near Lake Tahoe received 7 feet or more between Friday and Tuesday morning. “We’ve had incidents throughout the park,” said Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman. “We’ve had trees come down. We’ve had vehicles slide off the road. Power is out at Wawona.” Gediman said all hotel reservations for Tuesday evening have been cancelled. The park’s ski area at Badger Pass also was closed Tuesday.

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Calif. Clinches New Regs Just in Time for Federal Rollback

/in , /by /E&E News (Washington D.C.)by Ariel Wittenberg

After more than a decade of drafting and editing, California is poised to finally update its wetlands regulations this spring. The effort, which began after a pair of Supreme Court decisions limited federal wetlands protections, could be finalized just in time to insulate the state from a Trump administration proposal restricting which wetlands and waterways are protected by the Clean Water Act. California State Water Resources Control Board Chief Deputy Director Jonathan Bishop said the administration’s Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule “has little to do with our process.”

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All This Rain Has Made a Big Dent in the Drought

/in , /by /SF Weeklyby Peter Lawrence Kane

How stormy has California been? Stormy enough that parts of Orange County got two inches of rain, enough to force Disneyland to close early,something the park hardly ever does. (This was unrelated to the guy jumping off Space Mountain last Thursday, temporarily shutting down that ride.) Here in San Francisco, we got 1.13 inches between Saturday and Sunday, with more this morning. If you were even slightly late to work today, your cuffs probably got soaked, since it was pouring hard downtown right around 9 a.m. But all this rain has led to another positive consequence for our abnormally-dry-is-the-new-normal state: The low-level drought has abated significantly.

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Huge Storms are Slamming California with Torrents of Rain and Heaps of Snow

/in , /by /The Washington Postby Ian Livingston

The second in major storm systems is battering California and other parts of the West Coast. It’s unleashing strong winds, heavy rain and massive amounts of mountain snow. Much of the state has already seen 200 to 400-plus percent of normal precipitation over the past week, and the same region is also generally running well above normal year-to-date. All this moisture has translated to over six feet of new snow in parts of the Sierra mountain range, and it’s still falling.

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Here’s How California’s 6 Feet of Snow in 24 Hours Compares to Other Snowfall Extremes

/in , /by /The Weather Channelby Chris Dolce and Brian Donegan

Incredible amounts of snow have fallen throughout parts of the Mountain West since last Friday after a one-two punch from winter storms Kai and Lucian. The Sierra Nevada, straddling the border between California and Nevada, has been particularly hard-hit, where one ski resort tallied 6 feet of snow in just one day. Taking that crown is June Mountain, east of Yosemite National Park. June Mountain reported 72 inches of new snow in the 24 hours ending 9 a.m. PST Sunday morning.

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Joining 6 States, Arizona Agrees to Use Less Water From Colorado River

/in , /by /Governing Magazine (Washington D.C.)by Tony Davis

“Everyone will feel pain” was the mantra emanating from supporters of Arizona’s drought plan for the Colorado River as it wound through the Legislature. It is true that under the plan, now embedded in state law, the major water users served by the $4 billion Central Arizona Project — cities, tribes and farms — will all take a hit. But some users will be hurt more, and some will be hurt sooner, than others. Cities will lose the least amount of water and those cuts will not be noticed by their customers.

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With Colorado River Water Shortage Looming, U.S. Threatens to Impose Cuts

/in , /by /SF Gateby Bettina Boxall

The federal government has moved closer to imposing water delivery cuts along the drought-depleted Colorado River after California and Arizona failed to meet a deadline for inking a broad agreement on how the seven states that depend on the river would cope with shortages. The federal official who manages the lower Colorado River had set Thursday as the deadline for the states to agree on a drought plan. Without a deal, the Interior Department would step in and begin to develop its own shortage plans, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman had warned.

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California Lawmakers Push for Oversight of Delta Tunnels Project

/in , /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena)by Nick Cahill

A group of Northern California lawmakers seeking more sway over a mammoth $17 billion water project introduced a proposal Friday that would require new construction contracts to be reviewed by the Legislature. The Legislative Delta Caucus says because of the scope of the California WaterFix, the project should require more scrutiny from both the public and lawmakers now that former Gov. Jerry Brown has left office. Brown fiercely advocated for the expensive public works project that he and supporters believe will both update the state’s aging water delivery infrastructure and protect it against sea level rise and other effects of climate change.

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