Californians may face new restrictions, including fines for improperly washing their cars, as the state prepares to virtually eliminate the water it supplies to local communities as it grapples with an unrelenting drought.
Two Southern California ski areas will open this week despite dry fall weather.
Big Bear Mountain Resorts announced that Friday will be opening day for the general public at Bear Mountain and Snow Summit. Season pass holders will get an early start on Thursday.
Weather across Southern California has been dry and mild but it has been cold enough up in the San Bernardino Mountains for snowmaking.
To visualize the hellishness of the climate crisis in 2021, look no further than General Sherman, the world’s largest tree, wrapped in fire-resistant foil to protect the legendary giant sequoia from flames burning a path of destruction through the Sierra Nevada.
California’s so-called Ancient Ones evolved with fire. It’s crucial to their reproductive cycle. But they aren’t prepared for blazes like those of the last year, which are burning hotter and more intensely as Earth warms, mostly because of the combustion of fossil fuels. Last year, flames killed roughly 10% of the world’s giant sequoias.
When Lucas Zucker talks about sea level rise in California, his first thoughts aren’t about waves crashing onto fancy homes in Orange County, nor the state’s most iconic beaches shrinking year after year.
What worries him most are the three power plants looming over the Oxnard coast, and the toxic waste site that has languished there for decades. There are also two naval bases, unknown military dumps and a smog-spewing port. Just one flood could unleash a flow of industrial chemicals and overwhelm his working-class, mostly Latino community.
As the climate continues to warm, more and more of the snow falling on California’s mountains will be replaced by rain. Already in recent decades, the snow season has shrunk by a month, according to one estimate, while snow levels have moved upward by 1,200 feet, according to another.
Scientists and water managers say that at some point California’s snowpack could simply disappear. This would leave the state without the crucial spring and summer melt-off that fills rivers and streams, nourishes plants and animals, and provides a huge chunk of the water supply. It would also be devastating for the ski industry.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography dedicated a giant ocean simulator Monday that will help researchers understand the effects of climate change on the world’s oceans.
The 120-foot-long, 36,000-gallon “miniature ocean” housed at Scripps’ Hydraulics Laboratory will enable scientists to preview the oceans and atmospheres of the future in which climate is altered even further by human activities.
Delegates and activists from nearly 200 countries returned from the COP26 global environmental forum in Glasgow, Scotland, with a long list of climate-related promises and targets to discuss and implement. While many countries made a renewed commitment to climate-resilient and sustainable agricultural systems, some groups accused leaders at COP26 of not doing enough to improve water security globally.
Augustine Godinez is standing on a walkway that extends over a large water storage basin. Below him, a huge metal arm swirls the water in order to separate the sludge out. What’s happening here is that wastewater is being recycled.
Segal’s Law: “Someone with one watch knows what time it is. Someone with two watches is never sure.” Time is certain, but its estimation and measurement are uncertain, yet we are not in total ignorance. Many water management and regulation decisions require an understanding of current and future hydrology.
The West could be facing a water shortage in the Colorado River that threatens a century-old agreement between states that share the dwindling resource.
That possibility once felt far off, but could come earlier than expected. One prominent water and climate scientist is sounding the alarm that the Colorado River system could reach that crossroads in the next five years, possibly triggering an unpredictable chain-reaction of legal wrangling that could lead to some water users being cut off from the river.
