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Safety Probe Warns California’s Dam Crisis A ‘Wake-Up Call’

/in /by /Associated Press (As published by Fox 25 Boston)by Ellen Knickmeyer

“Long-term and systemic failures” by California dam managers and regulators to recognize inherent construction and design flaws at the tallest U.S. dam caused last year’s near-disaster there, an independent panel of dam safety experts said Friday, calling it a wake-up call for dam operators around the country. Members of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials and the U.S. Society on Dams carried out an independent investigation into the human and technical problems that caused the crisis at California’s Oroville Dam. The experts issued their report Friday.

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Will More Needed Rain Follow Early Week Storm Into California?

/in /by /Accuweatherby Kristina Pydynowski

With the first significant storm of the winter season targeting the Southwest, many residents may be wondering if the weather pattern is finally flipping with more needed rain and mountain snow in the offering. Aside from the concern for flooding and mudslides in the burn areas and widespread travel delays, a turn to wet weather would benefit the Southwest.

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Outlook 2018: The Biggest Water Topics In The West This Year

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Tara Lohan

For the next few months much of the talk around water issues in California and the rest of the Western United States will be about how much precipitation falls, the water content of the snowpack and how temperatures will impact runoff in the spring. So far, we know we’re off to a slow start in terms of snow accumulation in much of the West.

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California Storm Sets Rainfall Records, Triggers Trouble in Fire Zones

/in /by /The Mercury News‎ (San Jose)

After a bone dry December, the stubborn atmospheric ridge of the Pacific Coast has broken down, the storm door has opened up, and on Monday, Californians from Redding to San Diego welcomed something we haven’t seen all winter: the Golden State’s first significant storm of the season.

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OPINION: Block Trump Plan to Pump Delta Water South to the Central Valley

/in /by /The Mercury News‎ (San Jose)

Few things are more important to the future of the Bay Area and Northern California than the quality of our water supply. And here comes the latest threat. At the behest of the Central Valley’s billionaire agribusiness operators, the Trump administration on Dec. 29 proposed pumping more water south from the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta despite the potentially devastating long-term impact on the water Silicon Valley and the East Bay count on.

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First Big Winter Storm Reaches California. Here’s What it Means for the Water Year

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee

California finally got its first real taste of winter weather Monday as a substantial rainstorm swept through the state, causing numerous traffic accidents and bringing warnings of flooding and mudslides in areas burned by wildfires. The National Weather Service said much of the Sacramento Valley could receive up to 2 inches of rain by the time the storm winds down late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Although the storm started out fairly warm, bringing mostly rain, parts of the Sierra Nevada could expect as much as 30 inches of snow.

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2017 Was Costliest Year Ever In U.S. for Weather, Climate Disasters

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicle

Last year’s devastating floods and fires in California combined with hurricanes and other natural disasters to wreak unprecedented financial damage on the United States, the federal government reported Monday. The nation endured 16 weather and climate events that inflicted $1 billion or more apiece in damage in 2017, tying 2011 for the most 10-digit calamities in a year and setting an annual total-cost record of $306 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The natural disasters resulted in 362 deaths.

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A Dense Blob Has Kept California Weather Dry. Here’s How It Works

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

Think of it as a dense blob of air. When it parks itself over the Pacific Ocean, it can act like a wall – and prevent rain and snow from reaching Northern California. When meteorologists say a “high pressure system” or a “ridiculously resilient ridge” is keeping the West unseasonably dry, this is what they mean.

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Hopes for Delta Smelt Rebound Dashed by Record-Low Survey

/in /by /East Bay Times (San Jose)

A tiny fish caught in California’s tug of war over water has become harder to find than ever, a state survey found, despite a very wet winter last year that had raised hopes for a bounce back after five years of drought. Environmentalists say the record-low fall survey for the Delta smelt bolsters the case for protecting salmon and other wild fish with sharper limits on water exported from the Sacramento San Joaquin River Delta to San Joaquin Valley farms and many cities in California

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Soaking Storm May End Southern California Wildfire Season Next Week

/in /by /AccuWeather

The first significant storm of the winter season may bring drenching rain and heavy mountain snow to the southwestern United States, including Southern California, next week. The weather pattern began to change across the region during the first few days of 2018 as a small amount of moisture began to flow in from the Pacific Ocean and into California.

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