Tag Archive for: Climate

Something was Killing Baby Salmon. Scientists Traced it to a Food-Web Mystery

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Susanne Rust

The biologists working in a fish hatchery near Shasta Dam grew increasingly concerned last year when newly hatched salmon fry began to act strangely — swimming around and around, in tight, corkscrewing motions, before spiraling to their deaths at the bottom of the tanks.

Certain runs of chinook salmon in California are imperiled; the hatcheries and the fry raised there are the federal government’s last-ditch effort to sustain these ecologically and economically vital fish populations.

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Hot Again: 2020 Sets Yet Another Global Temperature Record

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Seth Borenstein

Earth’s rising fever hit or neared record hot temperature levels in 2020, global weather groups reported Thursday.

While NASA and a couple of other measurement groups said 2020 passed or essentially tied 2016 as the hottest year on record, more agencies, including the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, said last year came in a close second or third. The differences in rankings mostly turned on how scientists accounted for data gaps in the Arctic, which is warming faster than the rest of the globe.

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2020 Ties 2016 as Hottest Year on Record, Even Without Warming Boost from El Niño

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Tony Barboza

Global warming pushed temperatures into record territory in 2020, in effect tying 2016 as the hottest year on record, according to data released Thursday by U.S. science agencies.

Last year’s average global surface temperature was 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit above the late 19th century average, according to NASA. It was the fifth consecutive year of more than 2 degrees above that base line. Indeed, the seven hottest years in 140 years of record keeping are the last seven. In descending record order, they are 2020 and 2016, 2019, 2017, 2015, 2018 and 2014.

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Dismal California Snowpack is Bad Sign for Water Supplies

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

A month into California’s peak storm season, the lack of wet weather is beginning to weigh on the state’s water supply.

The snowpack in the Sierra and southern Cascades, which provides as much as a third of the water used by California cities and farms, is about 55% of average for this time of year. It hasn’t been this low at this time since 2017, when the state was emerging from a five-year drought.

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Waves Off Central Coast Contain Clues About Changing Climate. Is California Due for Drought?

/in , /by /San Luis Obispo Tribuneby John Lindsey

The waves along the Central Coast can tell you a lot about our changing climate, and here’s why.

The Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s Waverider Buoy has measured wave heights and periods since June 1983 and directions since June 1996 and is one of the longest continuous-wave monitoring stations along the West Coast.

Scripps Institute of Oceanography’s Coastal Data Information Program maintains an extensive network of buoys that monitor waves along the coastlines of the United States. You can view the historical wave data archive from Diablo Canyon and other stations at the CDIP database at cdip.ucsd.edu.

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Savor the Last Drops — Bay Area Rains Not Expected Again Until 2021

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Nora Michanec

If Bay Area residents didn’t take time to appreciate Wednesday’s overnight dousing, it seems it’s too late. It’s all we’re going to get until 2021, forecasters say. Following the much-needed downpour that led to Thursday morning’s soaked roadways, an unusually dry holiday season lies ahead.

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Researchers Solve a Colorado River Mystery

/in , /by /PHYS.ORG

A team led by University of Oregon geologist Rebecca Dorsey has published two papers that provide new insights into the origins of the Colorado River, using data from ancient sedimentary deposits located east of the San Andreas fault near the Salton Sea in Southern California.

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Biden Nominates Rep. Haaland to Interior, Naming First Native American Cabinet Member

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Anna M. Phillips

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Deb Haaland, the freshman representative from New Mexico, to lead the Interior Department, making history by selecting the first Native American to oversee the agency that manages millions of acres of federal land and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to a person familiar with the decision.

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San Diego Researchers Looking to Grow a Climate Solution

/in , /by /KPBS-FM/TVby Erik Anderson

Salk Research Institute Greenhouse manager McKenna Hopwood opened a door to what she jokingly calls “the meat locker.”

“Alright, here we are,” Hopwood said as she pointed to the ceiling.

Bags of drying plants, both stalks and roots, hang from the ceiling, prompting the comparison to a slaughterhouse meat cooler. But, of course, the hanging carcasses here are plants.

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Pure Water Project May Receive $6 Million for Construction

/in , /by /The Coast News Groupby Samantha Nelson

The U.S. Secretary of the Interior is planning to recommend a $6 million grant award for the construction of the Pure Water Oceanside project. Interior Secretary David. L. Bernhardt is planning to recommend the project for the grant award, which will come from the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART: Title XVI WIIN Water Reclamation and Reuse Projects funding opportunity.

The Bureau of Reclamation provides grants to water districts and communities like Oceanside trying to reclaim and reuse wastewater and compromised ground and surface water in the West. Pure Water Oceanside will purify recycled water to create a local source of potable drinking water.

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