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In California, Abundant Rains, 618 Inches Of Snow And An End To Drought. More Winter And Water Are Coming.

/in , /by /The Washington Postby Mike Branom

The past week has been lovely for enjoying California’s outdoor splendor, with warm temperatures and clear, blue skies ushering in a welcome change from such a wet, dreary winter. Bring on spring! But while the Golden State might be through with winter, winter is not through with the Golden State. Forecasts are calling for precipitation, widespread and light — save for scattered cloudbursts — and cooler conditions starting Wednesday. A second round of unsettled weather, perhaps a little weaker and quicker, is coming late Friday into Saturday.

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Dam Operators Release Water Into Valley Rivers As Rapid Warm Up Melts Sierra Snowpack

/in , /by /ABC30 (Fresno) by Gene Haagenson

Water is coming out from Friant Dam into the San Joaquin River. The dam is at about 82 percent of capacity, and the warm weather is melting the mountain snow. Michael Jackson, Area Director for the Bureau of Reclamation, says, the flow out of the dam is being increased. “Warm weather has hastened the snowmelt runoff season for us,” Jackson said. Flood releases don’t usually start until April, so the extra water is good news for Valley growers, with extra irrigation water available.

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Storm System Expected To Bring Rain, Chance Of Thunderstorms

/in , /by /Fox 5 San Diegoby Chrissy Russo

A low-pressure storm system is expected to reach San Diego County Tuesday, bringing light rain and a chance of thunderstorms, according to the National Weather Service. The system is expected to move inland across Southern California Tuesday evening and could begin dropping rain late Tuesday evening, forecasters said. Coastal and inland-valley areas could get up to a quarter-inch of rain through Thursday night, while around four-tenths of an inch could fall in the mountains and around two-tenths of an inch is forecast for the deserts, according to the NWS.

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Third Time A Charm? New Site Eyed For Water Plant In Escondido

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby J. Harry Jones

It could be called the Washington Avenue shuffle. Three times now, Escondido has proposed building a large recycled water treatment plant on lots along Washington Avenue, first near its eastern terminus, the second time in the middle of the city, and now near the western end of the street. The first try was on city-owned land near where the street ends at El Norte Parkway, property surrounded on three sides by newer housing whose residents screamed bloody murder. That location was rejected by the City Council in 2016.

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New Storm To Mark End Of Dry Spell In California, Southwestern US

/in , /by /AccuWeatherby Alex Sosnowski

After an extended break from storms, a new storm from the Pacific will eye California and much of the Southwest during the middle to latter part of this week. While far from some of the blockbuster storms of this past winter, this storm will bring enough rain and snow to slow travel and hinder outdoor activities.

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Western Droughts Caused Permanent Loss To Major California Groundwater Source

/in , /by /PHYS.orgby Joshua Rapp

California’s Central Valley aquifer, the major source of groundwater in the region, suffered permanent loss of capacity during the drought experienced in the area from 2012 to 2015. California has been afflicted by a number of droughts in recent decades, including one between 2007 and 2009, and the millennium drought that plagued the state from 2012 to 2015. Due to lack of water resources, the state drew heavily on its underground aquifer reserves during these periods.

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One Increasingly Popular Way To Control Floods: Let The Water Come

/in , /by /KQEDby Hannah Hagemann

In California’s Central Valley, 100 miles east of San Francisco, the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers meet. Their waters mingle amid a wide flat plain of shrubs, cottonwood and oak trees. The Dos Rios Ranch Preserve, 1,600 acres of wetlands, river habitat and rolling hills, sits at the site of this juncture. On clear days, the Sierra Nevada rises in the east and the Coast Range to the west.

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AP Finds Hot Records Falling Twice As Often As Cold Ones

/in , /by /The Associated Pressby Seth Borenstein and Nicky Forster

Over the past 20 years, Americans have been twice as likely to sweat through record-breaking heat rather than shiver through record-setting cold, a new Associated Press data analysis shows. The AP looked at 424 weather stations throughout the Lower 48 states that had consistent temperature records since 1920 and counted how many times daily hot temperature records were tied or broken and how many daily cold records were set. In a stable climate, the numbers should be roughly equal.

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OPINION: Finally, A New Path Toward Managing Water, Rivers And The Delta

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Jennifer Pierre

For people who closely follow California water, here are headlines in the paper or tweets in your feed that you never see about water operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: “Pumping curtailed during next storm due to nearby migrating salmon” Or: “Storm opens water supply window as few fish conflicts detected” Why? Our rules, cobbled over time from various state water right decisions or federal biological opinions, are too rigid. Pumping rules in the Delta on Nov. 30, for example, are very different than those 24 hours later, regardless of the weather.

 

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High Snowpack Could Temporarily Stave Off Colorado River Water Shortage

/in , /by /KUNC (Greeley, Colo.)by Luke Runyon

High snowpack in the southern Rocky Mountains this winter will likely stave off a shortage declaration in the Colorado River watershed in 2020, relieving pressure on water managers attempting to navigate future scarcity. New data from U.S. Bureau of Reclamation models show a lessened risk of a key Colorado River reservoir dropping far enough to trigger a first-ever shortage declaration. Snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin is at 138 percent of the long-term median, a level not seen in mid-March since 1997.

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