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Drought Conditions Improve in West

/in /by /Feedstuffs (Bloomington, Minn.)by Krissa Welshans

In May, the West saw the biggest decreases in drought areas, while the Southeast saw the biggest increases, according to National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) climatologist Deborah Bathke.

A steady improvement in conditions in northern California and western Nevada led to a reduction of extreme (D3) and severe (D4) drought in these areas. “Extreme southeastern California and the northwestern parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico also saw changes for the better, with some removal of moderate drought conditions,” Bathke noted.

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It’s Going to be a Long, Fiery Summer

/in /by /Appeal-Democrat (Marysville)by Chris Kaufman

Ample rainfall helped put a dent in California’s drought, but it also created more fuel for wildfires, officials said.

Fire departments are gearing up for a long summer with training exercises and are encouraging people to be fire safe. “With lots of rain this winter, the grass grew a lot, and we became a dry tinderbox,” Chief Mike Butler of the Dobbins/Oregon House Fire Protection District said.

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Sacramento City Council Rejects Plan to Increase Watering Days

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Anita Chabria

As temperatures race toward the triple digits, City Council members voted unanimously to reduce water conservation goals but maintain a twice-weekly watering restriction.

The Department of Utilities presented a plan to drop conservation goals from 28 percent over 2013 levels down to 10 percent and increase watering to three days a week but found little support from the council. Instead, the council embraced an alternative suggestion from Councilman Jeff Harris that would keep the city’s water shortage level at stage two –acknowledging ongoing drought conditions – but lower the conservation target to 20 percent.

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Heat Wave Knocks Out Power to Thousands in Southern California

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joseph Serna

Thousands of Southern California residents were left without power Tuesday as a brutal heat wave continued to bake the region, utility company officials said.

Some 5,500 customers — including residences and businesses — scattered across Los Angeles were affected as of 2 p.m. Most would probably have power restored by the evening, Department of Water and Power officials said. Though the cause of the outages are being investigated, the heat wave that has sent temperatures skyrocketing into the triple digits and put record demand on the power grid — including because of increased use of air conditioners — was certainly a factor, said DWP spokeswoman Vonda Paige.

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California Snowpack Won’t Recover From Drought For Years

/in /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Amy Quinton

The winter of 2015 capped four years of drought that resulted in an unprecedented water deficit in Sierra Nevada snowpack. Much of California’s water comes from snowmelt.

Researchers at UCLA say in a new study, that this winter’s strong El Niño didn’t make up for that deficit. They found that even if the state gets above-average precipitation, it will take until 2019 to recover. Scientists used NASA satellite and snow survey data to assess snowpack. This gave them a better and more accurate picture of snow in higher elevations.

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Water-Wasting Leaks Plague Many Cities

/in /by /The Wall Street Journalby Cameron McWhirter

Cash-strapped cities are contending with aging, leak-prone water systems that waste trillions of gallons a year and result in damaging breaks.

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Raging Fires in Azusa and Duarte Now 4,900 Acres

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ruben Vives, Hailey Branson-Potts and Nina Agrawal

Firefighters on Tuesday continued to battle twin blazes burning dangerously close to each other in the mountains above Duarte and Azusa, as hundreds of residents were forced to flee and dozens of horses were evacuated.

More than 1,000 firefighters deployed to tame the Reservoir and Fish fires, burning about 1.5 miles apart in Angeles National Forest. The fires are now being managed as a single conflagration called the San Gabriel Complex fire, authorities said. They could connect if winds become gusty. Late Tuesday, fire officials said the blazes had burned 4,900 acres, downgrading earlier estimates on the fires’ size. The blazes are 10% contained.

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It Will Take Years of Wet Weather Before California Recovers From Drought, Study Finds

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Matt Stevens

When forecasters last year warned of a massive El Niño, some Californians held out hope that a single extremely wet year could bust the state’s severe drought.

But a study published Tuesday in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, offered support for the argument that state hydrologists have been making for months: It will take several years to recover from the four-year water shortage. Specifically, researchers studied the Sierra Nevada and found that the lackluster snowpack there, year after year, created a sizable water deficit that the state may not recoup until 2019.

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Bill Targets Secrecy in California Water Data

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Ian James

Farms and golf courses rank among the biggest water users in the Coachella Valley, but detailed information about how much water each of those businesses use is kept secret by the area’s largest water agency.

That would change under a bill now before the California Legislature. The bill would clarify previous legislation by specifying that while residential customers’ data may be kept confidential, the public is entitled to information about how much water and energy is used by businesses and institutions.

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Study Finds Surprising Source of Colorado River Water Supply

/in /by /High Country News (Paonia, Colo.)by Sarah Tory

Every spring, snow begins to melt throughout the Rocky Mountains, flowing down from high peaks and into the streams and rivers that form the mighty Colorado River Basin, sustaining entire cities and ecosystems from Wyoming to Arizona. But as spring becomes summer, the melting snow slows to a trickle and, as summer turns to fall, all but stops.

Scientists have known for a long time that flow in rivers is sustained by contributions from both snowmelt runoff and groundwater.

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