Sierra Could Get 80 More Inches of Snow By Christmas
Snow, snow, snow!
The folks at UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab have been tracking the fluffy white stuff and predict that Christmas will be the snowiest day of the week.
Tag Archive for: Climate Change
San Diego’s First Winter Storms to Deliver Days of Rain For Christmas
We may not be getting a White Christmas this year, San Diego, but it will certainly be wet.
Back-to-back storm systems — one fueled by an atmospheric river — will bring rain, gusty winds, chilly temperatures and potentially some light mountain snow to San Diego County this week.
While California comrades to our north saw stormy weather starting as early as Tuesday, the first storm system is expected to reach San Diego County on Thursday.
Water Officials Set to Wring More Savings From Stressed Colorado River
Last week water officials from Nevada and two other Colorado River states said they would reduce their draws from the ailing waterway.
Now they need to make that happen.
Water leaders in Nevada, Arizona, and California signed an agreement to voluntarily reduce their take from the Colorado River to help stave off mandatory cuts in the upcoming years.
Opinion: The Lower Basin Inked A Plan To Save Lake Mead In Just 4 Months. But We’re Not Done
The takeaway from the “500-plus plan,” the recently inked effort to save Lake Mead, can be summed up in just three words:
We’re. Not. Done.
That doesn’t make the deal any less consequential.
The Pain Of The West-wide Drought In 2021
Like a sinister specter that won’t vanish, drought was already writing the playbook for water supplies in Utah and the rest of the West as early as fall of 2020.
The year 2021 may have been months ahead, but extremely dry conditions during those last few months of 2020 amplified the reality of what was to come: drought, and a nasty one.v
California Snow Drought Ends in Dramatic Fashion, While Other States Still Deal with Shortage
Thanks to multiple atmospheric river events, average snowpack in California has gone from 18% to 98% in just two weeks.
“Increases in snowpack of this size are not common, but also not unprecedented,” Julie Kalansky, deputy director of operations for the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E), explained.
Kalansky pointed out previous studies have shown a jump on this scale can happen about twice every three years, but usually over the course of an entire winter, not just the month of December. While they don’t have the exact rankings for each month of the year, “most of the storm events in the study we referenced for the above calculation were in the second half of December and later into the season,” Kalansky added.
The sudden change gives California its wettest start to the Water Year in more than 40 years, thanks to several drought-denting rain and snow systems pushing through the area in recent weeks. The Water Year runs from October 1 through September 30 of the following year.
California, Arizona and Nevada Agree to Take Less Water from Ailing Colorado River
Trying to stave off dangerously low levels of water in Lake Mead, officials in California, Arizona and Nevada have reached an agreement to significantly reduce the amount they take from the Colorado River.
The problem took on new urgency this summer when the federal government declared a first-ever water shortage in the 86-year-old reservoir near Las Vegas.
Water Authority Earns Climate Registered Gold Status for Climate Initiative
The San Diego County Water Authority has earned Climate Registered gold status from The Climate Registry for verifying and publicly reporting its greenhouse gas emissions. The effort fosters transparency for the agency’s climate mitigation initiatives and will help the Water Authority track and validate emissions reductions in the future.
The Climate Registry operates North America’s largest voluntary registry for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Water Authority’s 2019 and 2020 inventories were verified and published in The Climate Registry’s public database in November, earning the agency gold status for both years.
Charts Show Where California Reservoirs Totals Stand After the Latest Rainstorms
A recent new round of heavy rain and snow following a dry November soaked a thirsty California landscape – but it wasn’t enough to significantly improve the state’s water levels, according to data from the California Department of Water Resources.
Water Authority Earns Climate Registered Gold Status for Climate Initiative
The San Diego County Water Authority has earned Climate Registered gold status from The Climate Registry for verifying and publicly reporting its greenhouse gas emissions. The effort fosters transparency for the agency’s climate mitigation initiatives and will help the Water Authority track and validate emissions reductions in the future.
The Climate Registry operates North America’s largest voluntary registry for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Water Authority’s 2019 and 2020 inventories were verified and published in The Climate Registry’s public database in November, earning the agency gold status for both years.
Climate leader
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the face of climate change is a critical part of our commitment to environmental stewardship,” said Water Authority Board Chair Gary Croucher. “We take our responsibility as a climate leader seriously, and we are developing forward-thinking resource solutions to ensure a sustainable environment for generations to come.”
The Water Authority works with its 24 member agencies to deliver water affordably and efficiently across San Diego County, and the agency has championed energy efficiency and environmental sustainability for decades. For instance, about half of the agency’s water is from the nation’s largest conservation-and-transfer program, and the agency is a leader in developing pumped energy storage to maximize the use of renewable wind and solar resources.
Climate Action Plan
As a centerpiece of its sustainability efforts, in 2014 the Water Authority voluntarily developed a Climate Action Plan and updates it every five years, comparing GHG emissions against a baseline and tracking progress toward State of California goals. Since the Plan’s adoption, the Water Authority has conducted annual GHG inventories and provides updates to the board of directors. Verification of the annual inventory by a third-party was another step toward validating the Water Authority’s climate mitigation efforts for stakeholders.
The Climate Registry – Climate Registered gold status
The Climate Registry is a nonprofit organization governed by U.S. states and Canadian provinces and territories. The registry designs and operates voluntary and compliance GHG reporting programs globally, and assists organizations in measuring, reporting and verifying the carbon in their operations in order to manage and reduce it. The registry also builds capacity for emissions reductions among government agencies, and spearheads innovative projects such as the Water-Energy Nexus Registry. More information is at www.theclimateregistry.org
“Organizations that become Climate Registered are the leaders in a growing movement to address climate change by managing and reducing emissions at the subnational level,” said Amy Holm, executive director of The Climate Registry. “We have just over a decade to take action that will ensure we avoid the worst effects of climate change. This kind of leadership is needed now more than ever.”
