Three resourceful homeowners took advantage of free resources, including design and plant selection advice, to create beautiful drought-tolerant landscapes. Their projects were named winners of the 2023 Vallecitos Water District Landscape Makeover Contest.
A reflection on the very rainy past seasons may leave San Diego County residents optimistic about the water outlook for this summer. After all, we had record rainfall levels in the southern half of California and snow falling as low as 1,500 feet, generating a snowpack of 172% of normal. It’s very easy to think a 2023 drought has been averted.
Unfortunately, headlines don’t always convey the full story. Despite the significant rain and snow that fell locally and in the northern Sierra Mountains, Southern California must continue to be judicious about continued water conservation and permanent water use efficiency.
Now that July’s sizzling numbers are all in, the European climate monitoring organization made it official: July 2023 was Earth’s hottest month on record by a wide margin.
July’s global average temperature of 16.95 degrees Celsius (62.51 degrees Fahrenheit) was a third of a degree Celsius (six tenths of a degree Fahrenheit) higher than the previous record set in 2019, Copernicus Climate Change Service, a division of the European Union’s space program, announced Tuesday. Normally global temperature records are broken by hundredths or a tenth of a degree, so this margin is unusual.
“These records have dire consequences for both people and the planet exposed to ever more frequent and intense extreme events,” said Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess. There have been deadly heat waves in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, Europe and Asia. Scientific quick studies put the blame on human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.
Across the western U.S., many areas received record or near-record amounts of snowpack over the winter. With the spring and summer temperatures melting the abundant snow, a record volume of streamflow has been recorded in several basins in the southwestern U.S., providing more water for the area later into the summer than is typically seen.
After two multi-year episodes of intense drought over the past decade, there is finally a centralized hub of resources and information for well owners and communities that suffered when their wells went dry. Before the most recent drought lifted thanks to this year’s historic winter, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) launched its Be Well Prepared program in May.
In early 2023, Lake Powell hit a record low — sitting at only about 22% capacity. As of late July, those levels were nearly double. Utah’s Colorado River Commissioner Gene Shawcroft said the ailing reservoir had risen 65 feet from the record spring runoff. Those inflows lifted the water levels to about 40% capacity.
It’s summer! This is the garden’s harshest and most challenging season of the year, Southern California’s gardening equivalent to winter in most parts of the country.
Pay close attention to how much, how long and how often to water different kinds of plants in your garden.
Your goal is to water just right — not too much, not too little — for each.
The slope of a 1920s La Mesa home went from a drab lawn to lush floral color with climate-appropriate plants, winning recognition from the Helix Water District as the runner-up in its 2023 WaterSmart Landscape Contest.
A new state task force charged with investigating the local effects of the drought-depleted Colorado River and recommending legislation to respond to the water crisis met for the first time this week.
Members representing different river interests who gathered for the first meeting on July 31 shared hope that they would find common ground as they collaborate on possible policies, tools and solutions to help respond to the Colorado River, which has been depleted by a 20-year megadrought, climate change and overuse.
We’re living in a pivotal moment in history, on the cusp of either sinking into a dark period of growing poverty, accelerating ecological destruction, and worsening conflict, or moving forward to a new age of equity, sustainability, and stewardship of the only planet in the universe where we know life exists. I believe a positive future is not only possible, but inevitable, but solving our current crises and moving along the path to that desired future will require new, concerted, and sustained efforts.
