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Scientists Develop Category System To Warn Residents About Strong Storms

/in , /by /CBS Sacramento

When you hear about a category five hurricane, you know it can be deadly. Now meteorologists have created a new scale to track the strong winter storms that slam the west coast. The new system could help give more people warning and ranks some of our past storms. Northern California is no stranger to strong storms that cause flooding, levee breaks, and mudslides. In the past, they’ve been known as a pineapple express, and more recently they’ve been dubbed atmospheric rivers. Now scientists have developed a new scientific scale to track them.

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Senate Bill 204 Increases WaterFix Oversight

/in , /by /The Press (Brentwood, Calif.)by Tony Kukulich

During a town hall meeting in November 2017, the Delta Caucus co-chairs state Sen. Bill Todd (D-Napa) and Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Discovery Bay) opined for more legislative oversight pertaining to the California WaterFix project. Last week they took a step in that direction. Todd introduced Senate Bill (SB) 204, which would require the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Delta Conveyance, Design and Construction Authority (DCDCA) to submit information about pending State Water Project contracts to the legislature for public review prior to those agencies moving forward with work on the Delta Tunnels.

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Lake Tahoe’s New Reality: Study Says Sierra Nevada Snowpack To Suffer Sharp Decline

/in , /by /Tahoe Daily Tribuneby Bill Rozak

Imagine Lake Tahoe with no snow year round. Every winter storm that reaches the basin brings only rain. No skiing. No snowboarding. No winter sports of any kind. As unpleasant and uncomfortable a thought it is, Tahoe is staring at a drastically different future. A dramatic decline in the Sierra Nevada snowpack will be felt the most in Northern California by mid century, according to a study published in December 2018 by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

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Water Use Restrictions Will Be In Place— Aqueduct Shut-Down February 23 – March 5

/in , /by /Valley Roadrunner Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Valley Center Municipal Water District (District) has been advised by its wholesale supplier, that from 8 a.m. February 23, through 8 p.m. March 5, the treated water aqueduct that delivers water to the majority of the District will be shut down to accommodate inspections, maintenance and repairs by the San Diego County Water Authority. As a result, water flow to the District will be severely restricted and the water remaining in storage will be the only water available only for domestic use and fire protection during the shut-down.

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Bureau Of Reclamation Releases Biological Assessment For The Central Valley Project And State Water Project

/in , /by /Sierra Sun Times

The Bureau of Reclamation released the Biological Assessment for the re-initiation of consultation on the coordinated long-term operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project. The document was transmitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service for consideration in developing new biological opinions covering CVP and SWP operations. Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources re-initiated consultation in 2016 based on new information related to multiple years of drought and ongoing science efforts.

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Ashley Falls Water Quality Project To Begin This Summer

/in , /by /Del Mar Timesby Karen Billing

At the Carmel Valley Community Planning Board’s Jan. 24 meeting, the board approved a large-scale storm flow storage and multi-pollutant treatment system in the Ashley Falls neighborhood as part of the city’s water quality improvement strategies. The project, located at the corner of Carmel Knolls and Pearlman Way, includes the construction of three reinforced concrete storm drain pipes for low-flow collection and a shallow biofiltration basin.The system will capture pollutants and stormwater runoff to protect the Los Peñasquitos Creek subwatershed.

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Are We Safe From A Drought This Year? Here’s What We Know So Far

/in , /by /SFGate (San Francisco)by Amy Graff

The rain and even a bit of snow keep on coming. Except for a 10-day dry spell at the end of January, the San Francisco Bay Area has seen a series of drenching winter storms that have watered gardens, fueled waterfalls, recharged reservoirs, and diminished the possibility of the ever-dreaded drought. In fact, all of California has been slammed with an onslaught of unsettled weather unleashing heavy snow and rain. There are some areas in Southern California such as Ventura and Kern counties where more rain has fallen in the past week than in all of last year.

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With Impressive L.A. Rain and Bay Area Snow, Hope Rises For A Rare Wet Winter

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Javier Panzar and Rong-Gong Lin II

Snowcapped mountains are pretty typical in California — just not the peaks that got dusted this week. A series of storms has brought a rare wet winter to the state, sending snow levels plunging and creating some surreal scenes Californians won’t soon forget: blankets of white covering vineyards in Napa Valley. Plows clearing California 17 between Santa Cruz and San Jose. Peaks in the San Francisco Bay Area with an alpine feel. Even San Francisco’s Twin Peaks got a light dusting.

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OPINION: Gov. Newsom must mop up Brown’s water mess

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Jonas Minton

Despite many high priority issues on his plate, one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first tests will be how he deals with California’s water challenges and opportunities. Unfortunately, in the last days of his term Gov. Jerry Brown made a bad bargain with the Trump administration and special interests. It’s yet another mess for the new governor to mop up. During his last month, Brown quietly signed an agreement with the Trump administration to transfer water from Southern California and portions of the Bay Area to corporate farms in the San Joaquin Valley.

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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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