Another multi-day storm soaked San Diego County to start this week. Thankfully, this one didn’t bring surging tides and destructive winds along with it — but it did bring snow.
That means instead of counting toppled trees and calculating damage to city infrastructure, we can just focus on how much water fell from the sky.
Thousands of visitors descend on the beautiful city of Oceanside every week. They are in town to hit the beach, swim or surf, go boating or fishing, and visit the historic Mission San Luis Rey. They come in such numbers that Oceanside’s population can swell from just over 170,000 to nearly 200,000.
All these visitors bring a huge benefit to the local economy. Beautifying the local landscape makes sense for both the well-being of local residents and the increased attractiveness for visitors.
The Canadian storm that arrived late Sunday night and moved out early Tuesday left significant rain across San Diego County. Here are the totals for 45 local communities, through 5 a.m. Tuesday. The final snowfall totals aren’t in yet.
The interior of the plane looked like a cross between a private luxury jet and a space mission control room.
The Gulfstream IV cruised at 43,000 feet, high above a seemingly peaceful layer of thick clouds that stretched to the horizon.
Crew members in blue jumpsuits stared at computer screens that revealed their hidden target miles below: a powerful atmospheric river that was churning across the Pacific Ocean toward California, bearing torrential rains and fierce winds.
Recent rains could mean a more flexible water budget for San Diego as state authorities announced increased water deliveries throughout California.
The state will allocate additional water deliveries to some 29 public water agencies, delivering 30 percent of requested water supplies after initially projecting only five percent delivery.
The seven states that depend on the Colorado River have missed a Jan. 31 federal deadline for reaching a regionwide consensus on how to sharply reduce water use, raising the likelihood of more friction as the West grapples with how to take less supplies from the shrinking river.
In a bid to sway the process after contentious negotiations reached an impasse, six of the seven states gave the federal government a last-minute proposal outlining possible water cuts to help prevent reservoirs from falling to dangerously low levels, presenting a unified front while leaving out California, which uses the single largest share of the river.
“I love the rain,” the Encinitas woman said as she walked through her backyard. “Anytime it rains I get excited about my plants.”
Robin Reid-Anderson has dedicated years to creating a backyard that’s sustainable in San Diego’s dry Mediterranean environment.
With the federal government poised to force Western states to change how they manage the alarming shortfall in Colorado River water, there is one constituency with a growing interest in the river’s fate that’s little known to some: Wall Street investors.
Private investment firms are showing a growing interest in an increasingly scarce natural resource in the American West: water in the Colorado River, a joint investigation by CBS News and The Weather Channel has found. For some of the farmers and cities that depend on the river as a lifeline, that interest is concerning.
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors welcomed seven new members from across the region at its first regular Board meeting of the year on January 26, expanding the agency’s leadership and policy making skills during a critical period for water in the West.
Each of the Water Authority’s 24 retail member agencies are represented by at least one member of the 36-member Board of Directors, which sets the Water Authority’s strategic direction.
The latest rain storms have made a dent in filling reservoirs prompting the State Water Project to allocate more water to local agencies. Deliveries from northern California could increase to 30-percent, up from just 5-percent in recent months when reservoirs were near deadpool conditions. Officials emphasize the drought though is not over.
