Lake Tahoe’s water level has dropped so low that water is no longer flowing into the Truckee River and salmon aren’t expected to spawn in a major tributary this year.
Some boat ramps and docks are hundreds of feet from the water line, and clumps of stringy algae have been washing up on beaches, said Geoffrey Schladow, director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center.
A wetter than average forecast for late October could dampen wildfires burning in Northern California and help ease drought conditions, according to the National Weather Service.
The latest weather outlook for the latter part of this month calls for above-normal precipitation in California, with possible high-elevation heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades. There is also potential for an atmospheric river between Oct. 21 to Oct. 27, forecasters said.
Yale researchers are charting the course of mighty “rivers” in the sky that are holding steady in the face of climate change — for now.
In future decades, however, climate-induced changes to these atmospheric rivers could drastically increase extreme precipitation events in some parts of the world, they report in a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Atmospheric rivers — long, winding filaments of intense water vapor — account for as much as 90% of the moisture sent toward the North and South poles.
Programs from the drought-busting handbook practiced by Southern California water agencies include recycling water, building storm-water capture basins and offering cash rebates for replacing thirsty lawns with xeriscape landscaping.
With the grip from a second year of drought tightening, a regional water-planning agency in the Inland Empire is moving ahead for the first time in its history with a more controversial program: cloud seeding.
This week, a historically dry period in California will come to bear at Lake Tahoe, where the water level is expected to sink below the basin’s natural rim. That’s the point at which the lake pours into its only outflow, the Truckee River.
It’s not a crisis, researchers and conservationists say, but it marks another extreme swing for Tahoe amid historic drought, wildfires and erratic weather, all intertwined with climate change and becoming more prominent aspects of the alpine environment.
Outlook maps for October temperature and precipitation in the U.S. offer a glimmer of hope for California and parts of the West. For the first time in months, California’s precipitation outlook map isn’t colored a desiccated brown, indicating drier-than-normal conditions.
Likewise, the temperature outlook map isn’t glowing red, resembling a stove-top burner set on high.
San Diego County officials Wednesday said they were ready to respond should oil from the pipeline break in Orange County make its way into San Diego County waters and beaches.
Nathan Fletcher, chair of the County Board of Supervisors, and Jeff Toney, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Services, said they are in constant communication with state and federal officials about the oil spill’s possible impact on San Diego County.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is known for damming rivers and building levees to keep waterways at bay. But a new initiative seeks natural flood control solutions as climate change brings increasingly frequent and severe weather events that test the limits of concrete and steel.
It only makes sense to use Mother Nature’s flood defenses as one of the tools to combat destruction from intense rains in the middle of the country and storms and sea level rise on the coasts, says Todd Bridges, who heads the Corps Engineering with Nature initiative.
The term La Niña may be one that casual weather observers as well as aficionados hear meteorologists using from time to time, especially when breaking down long-term weather trends or providing a sneak peek at conditions expected during an upcoming winter or hurricane season. But, what exactly is La Niña? Let’s take an in-depth look.
The key to how winter in the United States may unfold often lies thousands of miles away in the open waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. It’s there where the roots of a climatological phenomenon known as La Niña originate and eventually help shape weather patterns worldwide.
The first-ever official shortage on the Colorado River has intensified a debate over how to provide water for 40 million people across the Southwest and irrigate fields of thirsty crops like wheat, cotton and alfalfa. Few voices outside government are more influential than that of the Walton family, billionaire heirs to the Walmart Inc. fortune, who have long advocated water markets as a key part to solving the region’s woes. But some environmental groups say the Waltons drown out other, nonmarket approaches.
