Tag Archive for: Snowpack

Season’s Last Snowpack Survey Confirms Dry Winter. California Inching Toward Statewide Drought

/in , , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

The last Sierra Nevada snowpack measurement of the season on Thursday confirmed what California officials have feared for months: The state has suffered through a dry winter.

The state Department of Water Resources announced that the snow was just 1.5 inches deep at its traditional measuring spot at Phillips Station, a vast field off Highway 50 near Echo Summit. The “snow water equivalent” was just a half an inch, or just 3 percent of average for this time of year.

The Phillips measurement was an outlier. A broader measurement taken by 130 electronic sensors throughout the Sierra revealed an average snow water equivalent of 8.4 inches, or 37 percent of average for this time of year.

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‘Borrowing From the Future’: What an Emerging Megadrought Means for the Southwest

/in , , /by /Cronkite News (Arizona PBS, Phoenix)by Madison Staten

It’s the early 1990s, and Park Williams stands in the middle of Folsom Lake, at the base of the Sierra Nevada foothills in Northern California. He’s not walking on water; severe drought has exposed the lakebed.

“I remember being very impressed by the incredible variability of water in the West and how it’s very rare that we actually have just enough water,” said Williams, who went on to become a climate scientist at Columbia University. “It’s often the case there’s either too much or too little.”

Williams is the lead author on a report out this month in the journal Science detailing the extent of drought conditions in the American West.

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As a Dying Salton Sea Spews Harmful Dust, Imperial Valley Water Wars Heat Up Again

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

The people of California’s Imperial Valley can be as unforgiving as the region’s harsh desert climate. It’s been 16 years since Bruce Kuhn cast the fateful vote to transfer tens of billions of gallons of Colorado River water from the valley’s sprawling farms to thirsty coastal cities, reshaping water politics in California and across the West.

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Study: Snowpack Will Become a Less Reliable Predictor of Drought in Western U.S.

/in , , /by /Colorado Public Radioby Grace Hood

In the next 16-45 years, two-thirds of Western states may have to turn away from snowpack and find new tools to predict drought.

And by the late century, scientists estimate that area will grow to four-fifths of the western United States, according to a new paper in Nature Climate Change.

“When the temperature warms, the phase of the precipitation is likely to change from snow to rain. So less snowpack is something that’s pretty likely,” said lead author Ben Livneh, an assistant professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Changes in Snowmelt Threaten Farmers in Western U.S.

/in , , /by /Science Dailyby Jeff Grabmeier

Farmers in parts of the western United States who rely on snowmelt to help irrigate their crops will be among the hardest hit in the world by climate change, a new study reveals.

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Wet Spring a Boon to Water Supply, Native Plants

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Robert Krier Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

In San Diego County and across California, it’s been an awesome April for precipitation.

The Sierra snow pack, although still much smaller than normal for this point in spring, has partially made up what had been a huge shortfall just a few weeks ago. And just about every place from the desert to the coast has benefited from a substantial soaking.

Last week’s record-breaking storm lifted San Diego County well above normal precipitation for the rainfall season. The city of San Diego has had its wettest spring in decades, and it has already recorded 3 more inches of rain since Oct. 1 than it normally gets in an entire year.

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More Rain Drenching San Diego County But Local Reservoirs Still Parched

/in , /by /KPBS-FM/TV (San Diego)by Erik Anderson Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego region is being drenched by a rare spring storm system, but all that moisture isn’t adding much to the region’s supply of drinking water.

The snow was falling in the San Diego county mountains on Wednesday, pretty heavily in some places.

That comes courtesy of a slow-moving cold storm system coming into the region from the north.

The region’s National Weather Service office called this prolonged six-week run of rain in March and April, pretty rare for the region.

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Following California’s Water as Another Dry Spell Looms

/in , /by /Capitol Weeklyby Ryan Kaika

What does a Central Valley almond farmer have in common with a San Diego homeowner? The answer is simple: Water. More specifically, the amount of water they need to sustain their respective lifestyles — which is a lot.

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California’s Winter Goes Down as one of the Driest, Thin Snowpack Shows

/in , /by /The San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

When California snow surveyors trekked into the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday, they officially logged this past winter as one of the driest in state history.

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Colorado River Flow Dwindles as Warming-Driven Loss of Reflective Snow Energizes Evaporation

/in , , /by /U.S. Geological Geological Surveyby USGS

New USGS research indicates that streamflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) is decreasing by about 5% per degree Fahrenheit as a consequence of atmospheric warming, causing a 20% reduction over the past century.

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