A winter storm swept into Northern California on Friday and dumped nearly a foot of much-needed snow in higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada. More snow was expected in the region before the system moved out. Moderate to occasionally heavy snow was forecast through afternoon, when the storm was expected to shift course to the central portion of the state, said National Weather Service forecaster Craig Shoemaker.
There’s a term for what’s going on right now in the Sierra Nevada and the mountains that feed the Colorado River. It’s called a “snow drought,” and Nevada climate scientists warn that Westerners had better get used to the phenomenon. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/science-and-technology/nevada-researchers-warn-of-more-snow-droughts-even-in-wet-years/Periods of below-average snowpack have become increasingly common in some Western mountain ranges, and more frequent snow droughts are likely as global temperatures continue to rise, according to Benjamin Hatchett, a postdoctoral fellow in meteorology and climatology at the Desert Research Institute in Reno.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to drill two enormous tunnels to divert water to the Central Valley and Southern California should have been buried a long time ago. The $17 billion price is too high, as is the risk of an out-and-out water grab at the expense of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast. But the governor stubbornly resisted alternatives to his California WaterFix — until now.
A series of stories this week renewed talk about the potential that Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration would scale down its $17 billion twin tunnels proposal, California WaterFix. Last fall, after two water agencies balked at the price tag, the state’s project to build new water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta looked to be faltering. But talk intensified recently about cutting the project in half.
Critics who say state water policy tilts too far toward Southern California got additional ammunition last week, when Gov. Jerry Brown named a new director to run his Department of Water Resources. New DWR Director Karla Nemeth is married to Tom Philp, an executive strategist with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Nemeth’s duties include overseeing the State Water Project, which delivers water from Northern California to the southern half of the state, and forging ahead with Brown’s controversial Delta tunnels project.
A winter storm system is heading to California, and is expected to bring the first significant snow to the northern Sierra Nevada since November, but spare Southern California the threat of mudslides. On Thursday, rain is forecast for the San Francisco Bay Area, while the Sierra is expected to see heavy snowfall by Thursday afternoon into Friday morning. The highest elevations of the Sierra could get 1½ feet to 2 feet of snow, while the elevation at Lake Tahoe could get perhaps half a foot of snow, said meteorologist Mark Faucette of the National Weather Service’s Reno office.
Between droughts and floods, the last decade has offered water managers in the southwest a preview of how climate change could impact a supply largely dependent on winter snow. This year’s disappointing snowpack has them worried again. “Water and climate change are joined at the hip,” said Brad Udall, a researcher at Colorado State University who published a paper earlier this year showing how climate change has reduced flows in the Colorado River. “One of the primary impacts of a warming atmosphere are changes to our water cycle.”
Opponents of the delta tunnels project claim state agencies met in secret to help push the project through, and the State Water Resources Control Board has postponed hearings.
A cold low-pressure system is forecast to swing across Southern California Friday night, bringing a change of rain to San Diego and snow to local mountains, according to the National Weather Service. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 5 p.m. Friday to noon Saturday for San Diego County mountains, according to the NWS. The system will bring light rain, gusty winds and cold temperatures. The snow level is expected to fall rapidly through Friday evening, with areas of westerly winds 25 to 35 mph and gusts to around 55 mph.
