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Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to Zero

/in , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Bob Berwyn

Parts of the world economy may have been on pause during 2020, dampening greenhouse gas emissions for a while. But that didn’t slow the overall buildup of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which reached its highest level in millions of years.

If anything, research during the year showed global warming is accelerating. Symptoms of the fever include off-the-charts heat waves on land and in the oceans, and a hyperactive and destructive Atlantic hurricane season.

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Winners Announced for Annual Water Poster Contest

/in , /by /Valley Road Runner

The Valley Center Municipal Water District this week announced the winners of the North County Water Agencies 29th Annual Water Awareness Poster Contest. The contest promotes water conservation education. 

This has been is a popular event over the decades to many children in the community, open to all fourth-grade students. This year’s theme was “Love Water, Save Water.” 

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Lake Hodges Water Levels Dry Up Prospects for Grebes

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Deborah Sullivan Brennan Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

For years, pairs of grebes would zoom across the water at Lake Hodges in a dazzling mating dance, and then build their nests on mats of dried brush suspended above the waterline.

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Dry Start to California’s Water Year

/in , , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

A dry start to California’s water year is reflected in the season’s first snow survey of the Sierra Nevada snowpack. The statewide snowpack is 52% of average for Dec. 30. On average, the Sierra snowpack supplies about 30% of California’s water needs.

“The first snowpack survey of the water year points to California’s climate variability, which is why a diverse water portfolio is needed to provide a reliable supply,” said Goldy Herbon, San Diego County Water Authority senior water resources specialist. “The Water Authority and its 24 member agencies have successfully diversified water sources, and continue to expand those sources, to ensure our supply meets the needs of the region’s 3.3 million people and its $245 billion economy.”

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Why It’s Way Too Early to Worry About Rain Deficits in SoCal

/in , , /by /Spectrum News 1 Los Angelesby Jacqueline Bennett

Yes, it’s been pretty dry so far this winter, but there is no need to worry. The major winter storm that roared through Southern California Monday proved we can erase a month’s worth of rain deficit in one day. I recently explained how the climate where we live — the Mediterranean Climate — sees the majority of its annual rainfall in the winter months. In fact, a whopping 80% of Southern California’s annual rain and snow falls from December through March.

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Climate Change Spells Trouble for the Colorado River. But There’s Still Hope

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

One of the best road trips I’ve ever taken was a sightseeing tour of the Colorado River, where it straddles the California-Arizona state line. I stood at the edge of Imperial Dam near the Mexican border, which diverts water to the farm fields of the Imperial Valley, then drove north to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, home to lots of birds. I walked along the river in Laughlin, Nev., where there’s a hotel called the Colorado Belle that looks like a boat, and in Needles, Calif., where Snoopy’s brother Spike lives.

Billion-Dollar Disasters: The Costs, in Lives and Dollars, Have Never Been So High

/in , , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Judy Fahys

Extreme weather will surely have its own chapter in the turbulent history of 2020. The human and economic toll of Covid-19 was already enormous this fall, when it became clear that 2020 was on track to break the previous record for big weather disasters, fueled in part by climate change. From the derecho that battered the Midwest with hurricane-force winds to unprecedented wildfires that scorched more than 700,000 acres in Colorado and gave California its worst fire season in history, weather and climate events like these represented only a few line items in the latest tally of the nation’s billion-dollar disasters.

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Farmers Swap Out Irrigation Methods To Keep The Colorado River From Growing Saltier

/in , , /by /Aspen Public Radioby Jodi Peterson & KVNF

AJ Carrillo farms 18 acres outside of Hotchkiss, Colo., in the high desert of the Western Slope about an hour southeast of Grand Junction.  When he irrigates his peach orchard, water gushes from big white plastic pipes at the top of the plot and takes half a day to trickle down to the other end of his five-acre orchard. Carrillo is planning to convert his Deer Tree Farm from flood irrigation, which is commonly used in Western Colorado, to a new and much more efficient style of irrigation – microsprinklers.

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Is Farming with Reclaimed Water the Solution to a Drier Future?

/in , , /by /Salonby Cirrus Wood

On a Saturday in late October, Carolyn Phinney stands hip-deep in a half acre of vegetables, at the nucleus of what will one day be 15 acres of productive farmland. “You can’t even see the pathways,” she says, surrounded by the literal fruits of her labors. The patch is a wealth of herbs, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, kale, winter squash, and zucchini. So much zucchini — fruits the size of bowling pins hidden under leaves as big as umbrellas.

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Dismal California Snowpack is Bad Sign for Water Supplies

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

A month into California’s peak storm season, the lack of wet weather is beginning to weigh on the state’s water supply.

The snowpack in the Sierra and southern Cascades, which provides as much as a third of the water used by California cities and farms, is about 55% of average for this time of year. It hasn’t been this low at this time since 2017, when the state was emerging from a five-year drought.

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