San Diego County’s fragile shoreline and vulnerable beachfront properties could be in for a rough winter, according to the California Coastal Commission, the National Weather Service and some top San Diego scientists.
“We are looking at an emerging El Niño event,” staff geologist Joseph Street told the Coastal Commission at its meeting Wednesday in Eureka.
Earth has sweltered through its hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever measured, with a record warm August capping a season of brutal and deadly temperatures, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Last month was not only the hottest August scientists ever recorded by far with modern equipment, it was also the second hottest month measured, behind only July 2023, WMO and the European climate service Copernicus announced Wednesday.
A new but little-known change in California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure” promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law, enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
Over the weekend, Burning Man attendees were forced to shelter in place when the usually-parched Black Rock Desert got roughly 3 months’ worth of rain in 24 hours. In August, Tropical Storm Hilary dropped as much rain on some inland areas of Southern California in a single day as they would typically receive in an entire year. In an age of Western megadroughts and dangerous decimation of groundwater throughout the country, recent storms underscore the importance of investing in the capacity to manage, collect, and store water.
According to new data released by the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), average monthly residential water use sharply declined in the first half of 2023, with water stores in reservoirs and other places continuing to remain well above average.
For years, environmentalists have argued that the Colorado River should be allowed to flow freely across the Utah-Arizona border, saying that letting water pass around Glen Canyon Dam — and draining the giant Lake Powell reservoir — would improve the shrinking river’s health.
Now, as climate change increases the strains on the river, this controversial proposal is receiving support from some surprising new allies: influential farmers in California’s Imperial Valley.
This summer’s heat seems to be easing down as temperatures decline to the 70s and 80s , a reminder that seasons are changing and winter is coming. In June, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association officially declared an El Niño, predicting that it will strengthen in the northern hemisphere this winter. But it’s too soon to know exactly what this winter will look like for California.
Population growth and climate change are stretching America’s water supplies to the limit, and tapping new sources is becoming more difficult each year—in some cases, even impossible. New Mexico, California, Arizona, and Colorado are facing the nation’s most significant strains on water supplies. But across the entire American Southwest, water stress has become the norm.
In the opening chapter of “The Ministry for the Future,” science-fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson details a calamitous heat wave that kills almost all the residents of a small town. In another chapter, he imagines a catastrophic flood that wipes out Los Angeles.
The late Octavia Butler described a Southern California reeling from years of drought in “Parable of the Sower,” and Paolo Bacigalupi writes about a near-future Southwest that’s also been devastated by drought.
The arrival of Tropical Storm Hilary in the region on Sunday was an ordeal or a huge inconvenience for many people — especially those who struggled with flooding in Tijuana, air travelers dealing with flight cancellations and delays, and drivers using Interstate 8 who only learned the freeway was closed in the Ocotillo area when they came upon massive lines of cars and 18-wheelers.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
