A new water year is here and there is much anticipation for what a growing El Niño will bring California. There is a likelihood the state could see back to back big water years.
After a year of unprecedented heat and flooding, experts are cautiously hopeful for California’s new water year with the threat of the historically unruly El Niño looming.
With the start of the new water year this week, state officials say there is plenty to celebrate. State climatologist Michael Anderson said in a Tuesday briefing that between October 2022 to March of this year, the state got 153% of normal rainfall, making it the sixth wettest water year on record.
The San Diego County Water Authority has the reliable water supplies to meet the region’s needs for 2024, owing in part to more efficient water use and a supply diversification strategy, it was announced on Oct. 2.
The water year began Sunday, Oct. 1, which hydrologists used to begin measuring the snow and rain that will help carry users through dry summer months the following calendar year.
Thanks to a decades-long supply diversification strategy and continued efficient use of water across the region, the San Diego County Water Authority announced today that the region has reliable supplies to meet demands in Water Year 2024, which started Oct. 1.
Hydrologists use Oct. 1 to begin measuring the snow and rain that will help carry water users through dry summer months the following calendar year. This fall, El Niño conditions continue to strengthen and could bring above-average precipitation to Southern California.
From the backcountry of Campo to the back roads of Ramona, firefighters were ready to roll last fall at even the hint of wildfire.
Two years of below-average rain and high temperatures had left the landscape parched. Something as small as heat from a car muffler could be enough to ignite grass. Firefighters described the region as primed to burn.
Sept. 30 marks the end of a water year to remember in California.
With the new water year kicking off Oct. 1, it’s worth looking back at the water year that was from record snowfall to landfalling tropical storms and everything in between.
Less than one week until California’s new water year begins, experts say the state is nearly free of drought — but there is no guarantee that another wet winter is soon to arrive.
The state, according to the Sept. 19 U.S. Drought Monitor, is 93% free of drought, a big improvement since measuring at 72% drought-free three months ago.
With Oct. 1 marking the beginning of a new water year, Mendocino County officials reported recently that local water districts are preparing for what could be another dry year.
In the latest update from the Mendocino County Water Agency, local water managers are quoted as describing their current status and outlook.
As California’s 2022 water year ends this week, the parched state is bracing for another dry year — its fourth in a row.
So far, in California’s recorded history, six previous droughts have lasted four or more years, two of them in the past 35 years.
Despite some rain in September, weather watchers expect a hot and dry fall, and warn that this winter could bring warm temperatures and below-average precipitation.
I don’t see how this ends well.
Most of the major players – the ones that matter, anyway, by which I mean Arizona, California, and the federal government – appear boxed in by constraints they can’t seem to overcome, while the water in the Colorado River’s big reservoirs is circling the drains.
