The city of Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 5, received more than $19 million in state grant money for climate resilience projects, including the Department of Water and Power’s turf replacement program that will pay for free yard transformations in underserved communities.
The first week of February brought only modest amounts of rain and snow but despite that, California’s snowpack and many of the state’s largest reservoirs are in good shape.
According to data tracked by California’s Department of Water Resources, the statewide snowpack is at 135% of the average peak. Typically the snowpack peaks in late March to early April.
On Monday, California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) released a draft Environmental Impacts Report, which looked into the benefits and potential negative impacts of repeated use of a temporary drought salinity barrier in the delta.
This drought barrierCalifornia’s Department of Water Resources is in the West False River. It is a wall of earth that helps to keep salt water from the Bay Area from infiltrating into the freshwater delta system during times of severe drought.
California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced financial support to four urgent drought relief projects in Humboldt, Los Angeles, Modoc, Shasta, and Siskiyou counties through the Small Community Drought Relief Program.
In coordination with the State Water Resources Control Board, DWR awarded $2 million in funding to support four projects that will improve drought resilience and address local water needs.
The heat is on.
Record-breaking temperatures are expected across California Thursday and Friday with the mercury rising up to 25 to 30 degrees above normal.
UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain referred to the sweltering weather as a “major early spring heat wave” and said it may be “most consequential in the Sierra Nevada” where the snowpack is already well below normal after a record-dry January, February and March, experts said.
California is heading for a “critically dry year” as drought spreads across the American West, creating a slow-moving crisis for the Biden administration and state officials.
The Golden State’s annual survey of Sierra Nevada snowpack, upon which it relies for as much as a third of its water, was only 59% of normal, officials warned last week, underscoring that the state didn’t get the “March miracle” of rain and snow it had hoped for.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
