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Experts Signal Cautious Optimism Amid Mixed Drought Recovery in West

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Service by Natalie Hanson

While California’s water outlook saw marked improvement in the short term, climatologists say years of worsening conditions across the West will take far more than this winter’s storms to recuperate.

Veva Deheza, executive director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Integrated Drought Information System, said in a briefing Tuesday that about 25% of the West remains in drought — compared to 74% at the start of the water year this past October.

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Desalination: Should California Use the Ocean to Quench Its Thirst?

/in , /by /Capitol Weeklyby Aaron Gilbreath

As the state’s water supplies continue to dwindle during this drought, it’s always worth weighing the pros and cons of desalinization to meet the state’s water needs

Groundwater keeps shrinking, reservoirs keep drying. Is it time for California to use desalinization to increase its depleted water supplies?

Here we are again: California is enduring another punishing drought, this one only a few years after the last one ended, which was the most severe drought in the state’s nearly 500 years of recorded history.

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Heat Wave This Week Will Intensify Fire Danger for Bay Area, Northern California

/in , /by /The Mercury Newsby Jakob Rogers

A pre-Memorial Day heat wave will prime the Bay Area for another dry fire season, roasting the region’s landscape with some of the hottest weather so far in 2022 and pushing temperatures in some cities close to 100 degrees.

A month ahead of the official start of summer, high temperatures could climb 5 to 20 degrees above normal on Tuesday and Wednesday for much of the Bay Area — a pre-Memorial Day blast of hot weather that prompted a heat advisory for the entire Central Valley and a red flag warning for a broad swath of Northern California stretching from Vallejo to Redding.

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Opinion: California’s Drought Response Isn’t Working. It’s Time to Order Cuts in Water Use.

/in , /by /Los Angeles Times

California is in year three of a worsening drought and the situation is growing dire. After a wet and snowy December, California experienced its driest January and February on record. More than 93% of the state is now suffering “severe” or “extreme” drought, compared with 66% last month, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Sierra Nevada snowpack has dropped to 55% of normal for this time of year and reservoirs are depleted.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in July called for Californians to voluntarily reduce water use by 15% compared with 2020 levels, but the state has cut back by only about 6.5%. In January, urban water use increased by 2.6%, compared with the same month in 2020, heading in the wrong direction even as the drought deepens.

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