What will California’s water picture look like in the next 12 months? The predictions are literally all over the map. After a measurement of the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada on Tuesday, Jan. 2 found only 7.5 inches of snow — 30 percent of the average depth — the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) put out a statement saying residents should prepare for “flood or dry conditions in the months ahead.”
The California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) issued its first snowpack report of 2024. It isn’t great. The snow in the Sierra Nevada is roughly 25% of the state’s average for this time of year.
California is beginning 2024 with a below-normal mountain snowpack a year after it had one of its best starts in decades, and officials said Tuesday that the weather whiplash has made the outcome of this winter uncertain. The water content of the statewide snowpack was 25% of the average to date, said Sean de Guzman, a water supply forecasting official with the California Department of Water Resources.
The weather in the new year will kick off on an active note as a series of storms will travel from coast to coast, bringing heavy rain, snow and thunderstorms over the 10 days. The West will bear the brunt of each storm first, beginning with one arriving early this week, warn AccuWeather meteorologists.
Restaurants, stores and other property owners will be banned from using drinking water to irrigate their lawns under a new California law. Assembly Bill 1572 requires business owners, public agencies and other entities to phase out the use of potable water to irrigate nonfunctional and decorative turf starting in 2027.
If there is one truism in California water, it is that there is not enough of it. In part to try to help address that issue, on December 19, 2023, the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) adopted the state’s first direct potable reuse (DPR) regulations. As detailed in the State Water Board’s press release, the new regulations represent the “most advanced standards in the nation,” provide a “climate-resilient water source,” and “add millions of gallons of additional drinking water.” However, is the picture quite that rosy?
California’s first snowpack measurement of 2024 is underwhelming with levels well below normal for this time of year. It is quite a change from a year ago when Phillips Station near Lake Tahoe was buried under 4 1/2 feet of snow. This year there were brown patches poking through the snow as the meager snowpack failed to completely cover the ground.
The bowl-shaped common space at the Mall III Homeowners Association property in Lake San Marcos was once a pricey, turf-heavy problem for its HOA board. After a water-smart landscape upgrade, it’s now a point of pride that’s easier on the budget.
Six months ago, an explosion ripped apart Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine, unleashing floods that killed 58 people, devastated the landscape along the Dnipro River and cut off water to productive farmland.
Installation of a new “pure water” pipeline has officially began at Miramar Reservoir, the City of San Diego announced Thursday. The project, as explained by city officials, is part of a program that will provide half of the city’s drinking water by year 2035. Called the Pure Water Program, this initiative uses “proven water purification technology to “clean recycled water to produce safe, high-quality drinking water.”
