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El Nino-Fueled Storms Expected To Rise Lake Oroville 25 Feet in Next Week

/in /by /KRON 4 (San Francisco Bay Area)by By Vince Cestone

El Nino-fueled storms are expected to help Lake Oroville rise about another 25 feet in the next week, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The department said with the lake rising rapidly due to the rain, the lake is now 47 feet higher than its low point of elevation, about 650 feet above sea level on Dec. 25.

 

“Rising lake levels will allow for the Spillway concrete boat ramp to be opened by Friday and Lime Saddle Boat Ramp is expected to be open sometime this weekend,” according to spokesman Ted Thomas.

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State Proposes Extending Emergency Drought Conservation through October

/in /by /Sonoma Westby By Tony Landucci

The California State Water Resource Control Board on Friday Jan. 15 released a draft proposal to extend state mandated water conservation rules through October. If adopted, the extension will mean that the current water conservation goal of 25 percent less water use compared to 2013 will continue.

 

As written, the latest draft will extend conservation rules through October of this year. The water board is asking for public comment on the proposal.

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Many El Niño Storms Blocked Off West Coast

/in /by /Hi-Desert Star (Yucca Valley)by By Stacy Moore

A high-pressure system is chasing El Niño storms away from Southern California, shrinking the region’s chances for a winter wet enough to ease the drought. The same system has been blocking Pacific rainstorms from California for several years, National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Stachelski said.

 

“It moves around slightly, but overall it’s been there most of the winter. It’s generally the same pattern we’ve seen in the last few winters, which is why we’re in such a severe drought,” Stachelski said Tuesday.

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Lake Oroville’s Surging Water Levels Becomes Trending Item on Facebook

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby By Ryan Olson

Lake Oroville is seen down a Bidwell Canyon Marina boat ramp Wednesday. The lake has come up almost 28 feet since Jan. 1, triggering a Facebook swarm Wednesday, but it obviously still has a long way to go. Bill Husa — Mercury-Register

 

The lake was a trending item on many users’ news feeds for quite a while Wednesday. Although trending items vary based on a user’s preferences, including location, staffers from this publication saw Lake Oroville topping the racism flap over the Oscar nominations, Netflix’s new shows and Planet Nine.

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Don’t Worry: Rain From El Niño is Still Coming to SoCal

/in /by /NBC Los Angelesby By Anthony Yanez

Wonder when El Niño is really coming to SoCal? NBC4 Meteorologist Anthony Yanez has some answers:

 

It’s the number one question I get about our weather: “Where is the rain from El Niño?”

 

If you’ve been paying close attention, you know the NBCLA weather team has been saying for months that we should be prepared for February and March. Everything is still on track for that time frame. But we have to be careful for what we wish for.

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California’s Lake Oroville Water Level Rises Drastic 17 Feet in 10 Days

/in /by /UPIby By Andrew V. Pestano

California’s Lake Oroville reservoir has risen nearly 17 feet in the past 10 days as consistent rains continue to bring relief to the drought-stricken state.

 

California’s Department of Water Resources estimates the reservoir is holding 689.14 feet of water out of a capacity of 900. More rain is expected in the coming weeks, which could bring up to 30 more feet of water to Lake Oroville.

 

“This is excellent. This is what we need,” Kevin Wright , the Sierra Valley watermaster for Department of Water Resources, told KRCR 7 News. “We are not out of the drought … The lake has a long ways to go before it’s full. So, we still need to conserve water.”

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Calif. Farmers Brace for Water Shortage

/in /by /The Associated Press (As published by: Tri-Valley Dispatch – Casa Grande, Ariz.)by By Scott Smith

Farmers in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley are bracing to receive no irrigation water from a federal system of reservoirs and canals for a third consecutive year and looking to El Niño to produce the very wet winter they need.

 

The year kicked off with heavy rains and an above-average snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. The El Niño — a global weather system associated with wet winters in California — may play out nationwide through late spring or beyond, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say.

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OPINION: Brown Should Focus On Water Storage, Not Tunnels and Trains

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

Gov. Jerry Brown has a grand stage and likely has some time to kill in his State of the State address Thursday. We’re here to help.

 

We urge the governor to spend some time talking about a topic that polls show the voters are interested in — drought and how to deal with it.

 

He can use current events as an illustration.

 

After a train of storms hit the north state this week, creeks and rivers flooded for the first time in years. It’s a long time since riparian habitats got a good flushing and it’s badly needed.

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Researchers Show off Groundwater Recharge near Modesto

/in /by /The Modesto Beeby By John Holland

A farmer on Tuesday spread canal water across an almond orchard southwest of Modesto. He wasn’t irrigating the trees – the rain took care of that. He was recharging groundwater.

 

The almond industry and its partners are researching whether excess water in wet years such as this one could boost aquifers that might be stressed during drought. In Tuesday’s demonstration for the media, the water came from city storm drains via a Modesto Irrigation District canal that usually is idle in winter.

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Researchers Test a Possible Drought Solution by Flooding an Almond Farm

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby By Geoffrey Mohan

The El Niño rainstorm had already turned Nick Blom’s almond orchard into a quagmire. Still, he wheeled open the lid of a massive irrigation pipe. Fifteen minutes later, a gurgling belch heralded a gush of water that surged over the lip of the pipe and spread across five acres of almond trees.

 

Blom is neither crazy nor self-destructive. He’s a volunteer in an experiment run by UC Davis that could offer a partial solution to California’s perennial water shortages, and in the process, challenge some long-standing tenets of flood control and farming in the Central Valley.

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