Media Coverage Archives

El Niño Danger: Rain and Gravity Combine To Create Sea Of Mud

January 7, 2016/in San Diego County /by Mike Lee /The Los Angeles Timesby By Joseph Serna, Raul Roa, Taylor Goldenstein and Rosanna Xia

As the latest El Niño rainstorm moved into Southern California, there were already signs that the combination of rain and gravity was creating problems.

Mud and debris flowed onto the 101 Freeway in northern Ventura County in an area that was recently burned in a fire, shutting northbound lanes.

Here are some questions and answers about mudslides.

Debris flow has long been a concern in areas where wildfires have recently burned. Vegetation, once burned, can no longer hold back loose sediment.

Full Story

Storms Cause Floods, Damage in San Diego

January 7, 2016/in San Diego County /by Mike Lee /NBC 7 (San Diego)by By Monica Garske, Liberty Zabala and Andie Adams

Roads were washed out, trees toppled, sinkholes formed and residents became trapped as strong El Niño storms swept through San Diego County Tuesday and Wednesday.

San Diego lifeguards worked swiftly to rescue people from rising water. One of those rescues took place Wednesday at Miramar Road and Cabot Drive, where lifeguards rushed to help four to five cars with people trapped inside.

The California Highway Patrol issued a Sig Alert for the 8100 block of Miramar Road as they continued rescues.

Full Story

The $2.4 Billion Plan to Water California

January 7, 2016/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Wiredby By Draining the Mojave

Scott Slater has a plan. It is not a popular plan, but he wants to pump 814 billion gallons of water from under the Mojave Desert to Los Angeles and other drought-stricken communities in southern California, and make more than $2 billion doing so.

“Yes, it’s quite a lot of money,” Slater, the 57-year-old chief executive of Cadiz Inc, says as he stands in front of a scale model of the project in the foyer of the company’s office on the 28th and top floor of a LA city centre office block. “It’s worth whatever the community who wants the water is willing to pay for it to meet their demands.”

Full Story

Storm Drops Another Foot Of Snow Around Tahoe; Many Crashes

January 6, 2016/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /The Associated Press (As published by CBS Sacramento)

The latest storm to hit the Sierra Nevada region dropped a foot of snow on ski resorts around Lake Tahoe on Wednesday, with a couple of inches in the valleys and freezing fog that caused dozens of crashes on slippery roads from Reno to Fallon about 60 miles east.

The only potentially serious injury reported involved a man who was hospitalized Wednesday after his truck slid off Interstate 80 near the Nevada-California line and plunged several feet below into the Truckee River. His name was not released, and his condition was not immediately known, the California Highway Patrol said.

Full Story

2015 Biggest Trends: Water Scarcity Rises to Top Global Concern

January 6, 2016/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Circle of Blueby By Keith Schneider

In the last days of 2015, the Famine Early Warning System Network, a forecasting tool, reported that the deepest drought experienced by South Africa in over a decade could lead to grain shortages and spiking food prices. South Africa’s corn harvest, which normally yields a 3 million metric ton surplus that helps feed other African nations, is projected to finish in April with a 500,000 to 600,000 metric ton deficit.

The warning network, an interagency data gathering system established in 1985 by the U.S. Agency for International Development, reported that moisture conditions are even more perilous in mid-continent Africa, where record flooding is occurring in East Africa while the most dangerous drought since the 1960s scorches Ethiopia.

Full Story

Effectively Monitor Water Use in Your Home with Calliope

January 6, 2016/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Techcrunch.comby By Lucas Matney

It’s estimated that nearly 18 percent of the water used in a person’s home is lost to leaks. Annually that can amount to a staggering 13,000 gallons of water. Whether all of that is coming from the toilet that won’t stop running or a catastrophic burst pipe, oftentimes you find out far too late that there’s a problem or an accident has occurred.

Calliope Waterworks, launching today from TechCrunch’s CES Hardware Battlefield, is aiming to make home plumbing a bit smarter and help save you money on your utilities and costs associated with water damage while also helping protect the planet.

Full Story

Not Just California: El Niño Blamed For Weather Woes around Globe

January 6, 2016/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /NBC Newsby By Erin McGarry

The impacts of this season’s “El Niño” — now tied as the strongest on record — have been felt across the country in the form of record breaking warmth across the Midwest and Northeast, the deadly tornadoes and flooding in the Midwest and Southeast, and now the conveyor belt of storms slamming into southern California.

But the El Niño effect isn’t limited to the United States — it’s a worldwide phenomenon.

In South America, for example, heavy rains are to blame for some of the worst flooding in 50 years for parts of Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

Full Story

Pacific Warm-Water ‘Blob’ Weakens, NOAA Reports

January 6, 2016/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /The Daily Astorian (Columbia Pacific)by By Laura Berg

The mysterious warm-water “blob” in the Pacific Ocean has weakened a bit, scientists reported in mid-December.

Strong winds dominating the West Coast during much of November brought “cold air and some new upwelling of deep, cold water that weakened the warm patches that made up the blob,” said Nathan Mantua of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

The blob’s above-normal ocean water temperatures dropped to within 0.5-1.5 degrees Celsius above average.

Scientists have hypothesized a link between the unusual warm-water expanse and climate change or the California drought.

Full Story

Lodi Council Moves to Form Water Agency

January 6, 2016/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Lodi News-Sentinel by By Joe Benapfl

At Wednesday’s meeting, the Lodi City Council unanimously voted to adopt a resolution to form a groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) in Lodi city limits.

This resolution will ensure that the city of Lodi has declared to form an agency within the 90-day window required under the state Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

Full Story

Wet Weather Continues To Loom For Northern California

January 6, 2016/in California and the U.S. /by Mike Lee /Record Searchlight (Redding)by By Joe Szydlowski

With a little help from El Niño, Mother Nature has turned on the spigot for California, though the North State so far has avoided the downpours that caused flooding elsewhere.

But that could change as a series of storms will continue to hit Redding and the surrounding mountains, said Nathan Owen with the National Weather Service’s office in Sacramento.

“Most of these storms are consistent with the El Niño pattern that’s been settling in the Pacific,” he said Wednesday.

About three-quarters of an inch had fallen Wednesday at the Redding Municipal Airport, he said.

Full Story

You are now in San Diego County category.