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Temperatures in some parts of the Southland reached higher than 80 degrees this week, and spring is officially here Sunday.

Federal forecasters have nary a drop of rain in their seven-day forecast for Los Angeles, and the two-week outlook by the federal Climate Prediction Center pegs Southern California for a 60 percent chance of above-normal temperatures through the end of the month and a 50 percent probability of lower-than-normal rainfall during that time.That could put us in April without more precipitation. This after February gave us the hottest month for high temperatures ever recorded.

After months of debate about whether rebates for water-saving measures are taxable, two members of Congress from California have introduced a bill that would clarify that they are not.

As part of a statewide push to manage the drought, Californians have received rebates from water districts for tearing out their lawns or installing water-saving devices. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California says it processed 37,000 turf rebates of $600 or more in 2015, and its member water agencies processed 26,000 other rebates.

Over the past 12 months, my research group has published a series of satellite-based studies that paint a most dire, space-based picture of changing freshwater availability. Some of our maps were published as part of The Desert Sun-USA TODAY series (Dec. 10, 2015) along with Ian James’ compelling narrative of the equally-grim view from the ground. There is no escaping the realities of the world’s shifting water landscape and humanity’s need to adapt.

 

The Desert Sun and USA TODAY recently published a five-part series examining the dire consequences of groundwater depletion in places around the world. Now that multimedia project has grown into a documentary film that will be shown on April 4 at the American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs.

The film, titled “Pumped Dry: The Global Crisis of Vanishing Groundwater,” was co-produced by Steve Elfers of USA TODAY and Ian James of The Desert Sun, and was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

An Australian company hopes to build a massive geothermal power plant by the Salton Sea, in a development that could raise hopes for clean energy advocates and supporters of Salton Sea restoration.

The Imperial Irrigation District’s board of directors voted Monday to approve a 1,900-acre lease agreement with Controlled Thermal Resources, which has proposed a 250-megawatt geothermal plant along the lake’s southern shore, near Calipatria. The facility would generate five times as much electricity as any of the 11 existing geothermal plants in the area.