If you don’t live near the fading banks of the Salton Sea, it’s easy to forget it exists — that is, until the winds pick up. Depending on which way they are blowing, gusts carry tiny, toxic particulates — and sometimes the stench of decaying fish and sulfur dioxide — from the Colorado Desert to Los Angeles, Phoenix, and points beyond. The smell is a reminder of the public health crisis that will occur if more isn’t done — and quickly — to save the sea.
A warm, wet storm known as a “pineapple express” chugged into the San Francisco Bay Area Tuesday, with the first rain falling in the early morning in the South Bay. The system driven by an atmospheric river that’s pulling moisture from the subtropics is centered in Central and Southern California, but its northern edge is forecast to bring rain to the Bay Area Tuesday through Thursday. San Francisco, Livermore and Concord are expected to record 1 to 1.5 inches across the three-day period; San Rafael and Half Moon Bay 1.5 to 2 inches; and Santa Cruz 2 to 3 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
Democrats in Congress have stalled an attempt to jump start an expansion of Shasta Dam, California’s largest reservoir and a major water source for the Central Valley. Their objections blocked a Republican gambit to allow the $1.3 billion project to move forward without full up-front funding and despite objections from Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration. A Democratic leadership aide in the House confirmed to the Sacramento Bee on Monday that House Democrats rejected a GOP proposal to speed preparations for the project, by eliminating a requirement on the amount of upfront funding needed for pre-construction.
An already dry winter for the Colorado River has gotten worse in recent weeks, but it won’t be enough to send Lake Mead to a record low — at least not right away. Despite worsening conditions in the mountains that feed the Colorado, forecasters still expect the reservoir east of Las Vegas to contain just enough water by the end of the year to avoid a first-ever federal shortage declaration. A month ago, the Colorado River Basin was on track for its seventh-driest winter in more than half a century.
An atmospheric river is predicted to dump more rain on Southern California and the Central Coast than any other storm this year, and is expected to drop up to 4 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada and 2 inches of rain in Sacramento before dissipating over the weekend. The National Weather Service expects a weak preliminary storm to hit Tuesday afternoon. Light rain and snow above 5,000-6,000 feet elevation is expected before a short break Wednesday morning, followed by a second system’s arrival that afternoon.
Nature bats last and the weather in March is hitting a grand slam for the outdoors. The latest storms to sweep across the Bay Area, Sierra Nevada and Northern California are a game changer for the snowpack, reservoir levels — and the imminent blossoming of spring across the parklands and greenbelt in the Bay Area. In a two-week span, the bottom of the ninth for winter, the storms arrived in time to transform the prospects for camping, hiking, boating, fishing and wilderness for the spring and summer recreation season.
Stay away from my lake, Californians. It’s too important, for the likes of you. Yes, as a legal matter, I don’t own Lake Mathews. But I’ve always felt a kinship with a Riverside County reservoir that spells our mutual name the correct way, with just one “t.” What’s more, Lake Mathews serves as the beating heart of the system that supplies water for me and millions of Southern Californians. Lake Mathews represents an end and a beginning.
Atmospheric rivers are vital to western water supplies, yet until very recently they were poorly understood: difficult to predict and measure, and very hard for scientists to estimate where they would make landfall. These are often erroneously called “pineapple express” storms, a term that applies to only a subset of atmospheric river events that originate near Hawaii. Most atmospheric river storms begin in the more distant tropical ocean and develop into a narrow band of strong winds that funnel huge quantities of moisture toward the West Coast of the United States.
Less than a year after Gov. Jerry Brown declared the end of a statewide drought in April 2017, people are conserving less water and California’s water systems are once again vulnerable to drought. Following an unusually dry winter, water conservation this year has fallen far below the mandated levels during the state’s recent multiyear drought, resulting in a combination of factors that may potentially lead to another drought.
The Trump administration is pushing forward with a colossal public works project in Northern California — heightening the towering Shasta Dam the equivalent of nearly two stories. The problem is that California is dead-set against the plan, and state law prohibits the 602-foot New Deal-era structure from getting any taller. But in these times of unprecedented tension between Washington and California, the state’s objection to this $1.3-billion project near the Sacramento River is hardly proving a deterrent.
