Dense fog, rain and wind are expected in San Diego County starting Tuesday night as the second of three bouts of inclement weather this week hits the region. Only a slight chance of showers in the forecast for the beaches, valleys and mountains during the day, but rain will become more likely overnight into Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Rain may start falling in the deserts Wednesday.
A lull in a series of powerful winter storms gave Northern California a chance Monday to clean up from widespread flooding while also assessing how all that moisture is altering the state’s once-grim drought picture. A few big storms alone won’t end the six-year drought, but there were growing signs that the so-called atmospheric river was making a major dent. Officials released water from the Folsom Lake reservoir and several others as a flood control measure.
Well, we asked for it — sort of. We’ve gone from drought to deluge. It seems we are being tossed around in an atmospheric river in what is considered one of the worst West Coast flooding events in a decade. Yes, we needed the snow pack, full reservoirs, water for rivers, crops and forests. But I guess we need to be more specific — we didn’t want a fire hose trained on our state. We did not want flood alerts, evacuations, landslides and road closures, along with all sorts of advisories. We definitely did not want loss of life.
Over the past couple of days, drought-stricken Los Angeles received about an inch of rain. But because so much of the Los Angeles area is paved, more than 3.8 billion gallons of that fresh rainwater was flushed into the L.A. River and out to the Pacific Ocean, carrying pollution and toxins along the way. As Southern California faces a sixth year of severe drought, we can’t afford to waste this precious resource. The new climate reality demands that Los Angeles get water-smart — and fast.
Less than four years after declaring California’s budget balanced for the foreseeable future, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday said the state is projected to run a $1.6-billion deficit by next summer — a noticeable shift in the state’s fiscal stability that could worsen under federal spending cuts championed by President-elect Donald Trump. “The trajectory of revenue growth is declining,” Brown said in unveiling his $179.5-billion plan for the fiscal year that begins in July.
On Tuesday night, the Poway City Council unanimously voted to increase water rates. The rate increase puts Poway water rates as the third most expensive in the county. The City Council acknowledged changes need to be made, but still hiked rates despite customer’s outcry. The City Council proposed to increase water rates by almost $10.92 bi-monthly for the average customer, plus $16.50 for the drought surcharge that has been suspended for the past year.
San Diego woke up Monday to brief heavy rain as winter storms buffeted California and brought flooding and heavy snow to the north. Radar at the National Weather Service office in San Diego showed a large area of rain spreading over San Diego county at sunrise. Drivers were warned to expect delays and minor flooding. Rainfall totals are expected to be light to moderate in the San Diego area, from a tenth of an inch along to coast to half an inch in the mountains. Highs will be in the mid 60s along the coast and low 60s farther inland.
The spring-like weather in San Diego County over the weekend is expected to give way to periods of rain and strong winds in the mountains and deserts this week, according to the National Weather Service. The first rain will move through the region Monday morning, the NWS says, with the next rain arriving late Tuesday and continuing Wednesday. A third rain event will arrive Thursday, followed by a dry and cool offshore flow that is expected to develop this weekend, according to the NWS.
Although gold might be California’s most famous natural resource, water is by far its most important. Without freshwater, California’s agricultural economy would collapse. Unfortunately, California’s freshwater availability is highly variable from year to year and 100 percent dependent on one season’s input, winter.
The most powerful in a series of winter storms lashed Northern California and Nevada on Sunday with heavy rains and strong winds, causing widespread flooding, downing trees and unleashing mudslides. Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes as rivers overflowed their banks. Several key highways including Interstate 80, Interstate 280, U.S. 395 and U.S. 101 were closed for periods because of hazardous conditions. Authorities were trying to determine whether the deaths of three people in the Bay Area — one killed by a falling tree, two others by car accidents — were related to the storm.
