Nearly an entire run of juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon cooked in the Sacramento River this past summer, casting doubt as to whether the iconic species can survive the one-two punch of drought and climate change.
Hot, dry, and ‘unrecognizable’ describes July 2021.
The West boiled with record-breaking heat, and persistent drought that has left the Colorado River, Lake Mead and Lake Powell two-thirds empty, a ‘bathtub’ ring lining the shores of the largest water sources serving California.
As more frequent heat waves broke records this summer, our photojournalists documented what it looked like and how we coped.
Climate change projections show the Central Valley will see more hot, dry years like 2021, but also some dangerously wet years as well.
This year has already seen high temperatures, drought and high fire risk for Central Valley residents, and Jordi Vasquez, environmental scientist for the California Department of Water Resources, said climate models show the Central Valley heating up 6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century.
The mercury could soar to 112 again Thursday in the San Diego County deserts, but cooler weather will arrive on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. The high pressure that has caused sweltering conditions since Tuesday will be replaced by a low-pressure system, which will also bring a slight chance of rain Friday night through Saturday morning everywhere except the deserts, forecasters said.
Come spring, the American West’s vast water reservoirs are supposed to fill with melting snow. However this year, as in recent years, the large reservoirs of Lake Mead and Lake Powell in the Colorado River basin have seen declining water levels — an ominous trend that a new study warns could signal a looming megadrought.
Temperatures will reach well into the triple digits again Thursday in the San Diego County deserts, according to the National Weather Service. Conditions in the rest of the county will also remain warm, but will be slightly cooler than Wednesday.
Dangerous and potentially lethal bouts of heat — driven by the unabated burning of fossil fuels — could fast spread to parts of the United States unaccustomed to such blazing hot conditions.
That’s according to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Research Communications. According to the findings, if humanity doesn’t dramatically rein in greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury, more than 6 million people from California to Louisiana to Kansas could regularly experience what experts call “off the charts” heat.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
