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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The National Weather Service office in San Diego is forecasting periods of light rain along the coast and inland beginning Wednesday and continuing through Thursday night. The rain will be accompanied by gusty winds of 30 to 40 mph along the mountain and desert slopes and a low snow level on Wednesday night.
While California will not receive a soaking rain similar to what occurred at the beginning of the week, residents across the state can expect unsettled weather to stick around through Wednesday.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
