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In 2000, researchers took a coring from the bed of a small, shallow lake in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. They analyzed the organic matter and chemicals in the sediments to reconstruct a climate record of the past 10,000 years. They then compared it with reconstructions of ancient ocean temperatures. The results echoed previous studies that have found a link between past periods of climate warming, cool sea-surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean and centuries-long droughts in California and the West. Does that mean that global warming is pushing California to the threshold of endless drought?

The San Diego County Water Authority is trying to become a player in the energy market. It’s not going very well.The agency’s biggest energy project is increasingly bogged down by a soaring price tag, relatively small returns and questions about whether it’s even needed. The project aims to address what’s become a major problem in the energy world: how to stop using fossil fuels without sacrificing reliability. Power generated from the sun, wind and water are better for the environment, but the sun doesn’t always shine, wind doesn’t always blow and hydroelectricity doesn’t work in a drought.

For decades, environmentalists have rhapsodized about the tranquil beauty of California’s deserts while battling fiercely with energy companies, the government and within their own ranks over what if any power production should occur on those sun-baked, wind-blown, geothermally active expanses of land. On Wednesday, U.S. Interior Department officials signed a blueprint that they touted as a finely tuned effort to balance conservation of California’s iconic desert landscapes with the state’s growing hunger for clean energy in the age of climate change.

Californians got their first dose of fall weather Tuesday as snow, rain and cooler temperatures gripped the state early this week.

Northern California experienced thunderstorms and showers that brought less than an inch of rain across Butte and Plumas counties Monday, while communities south of Lake Tahoe received a bit of snow early Tuesday. The precipitation is not enough to affect travel, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

Want to know how recycled water gets purified for drinking? The Padre Dam Municipal Water District has a new animated video that helps explain it. The two-minute video, “It’s A Big Deal,” details the district’s water purification program in an easy-to-understand way, said Allen Carlisle, CEO and general manager of Padre Dam. The pilot program is based in Santee and called the Advanced Water Purification Program. Last year, Padre Dam opened a demonstration plant to evaluate it. Padre Dam has now secured more than $10.5 million in grants for the first phase of its advanced water project.