Tulare Lake has sprung back to life, its shoreline rapidly expanding from the runoff of a winter of epic rainstorms and the melting of the massive southern Sierra snowpack.
The lake, which has been mostly dry for decades, now covers miles of rich farmland and is threatening to overwhelm nearby communities.
San Diego is trying to reduce chronic flooding in neighborhoods like Mission Valley, Sorrento Valley and the Tijuana River Valley with a comprehensive new plan to streamline the clearing of clogged stormwater channels across the city.
New research showing how global warming intensifies extreme rainfall at the regional level could help communities better prepare for storms that in the decades ahead threaten to swamp cities and farms.
The likelihood of intense storms is rising rapidly in North America, and the study, published Monday in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, projects big increases in such deluges.
“The longer you have the warming, the stronger the signal gets, and the more you can separate it from random natural variability,” said co-author Megan Kirchmeier-Young, a climate scientist with Environment Canada.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
