Faced with dire water shortages and a severe drought, California has moved to enact emergency restrictions that will prevent thousands of farmers and landowners from using water drawn from an enormous system of streams and rivers that services nearly two-thirds of the state.
With just one month left in the precipitation year and little rainfall to show for it, Turlock Irrigation District and its customers are currently experiencing the fourth-driest year on record.
According to TID hydrologist Olivia Cramer, the Tuolumne River Watershed has received just 18.23 inches of precipitation since Sept. 1, or just about half of the historical average. The TID precipitation year, which is different from the water year, runs from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31 and will come to an end next month. The water year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
This year’s 18.23 inches of rainfall come as the region experiences a second-straight year of drought conditions and puts 2020-2021 in the record books as TID’s fourth-driest precipitation year on record. The three driest years on record in order are 1977 (10.90 inches), 1976 (17.46 inches) and 2015 (17.50 inches).
Southern Arizona has been under the strongest category of drought since early last year. With a strong start to monsoon, the area should soon show a bit of recovery.
It takes more than just a handful of good rainfalls to recover from such a bad drought.
“You really want to have a saturation process. You need to replenish the aquifers. You need to replenish the water tables,” Chief Meteorologist Matt Brode said. “Heavy steady rains work and basically all kinds of frames, but it has to happen over a long period of time.”
Palm Springs was visited by early morning thunderstorms Sunday. The scattered showers delivered 0.08 inches of rain between about 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., according to the National Weather Service, with additional rain possible Sunday afternoon.
Rainfall varied throughout the rest of the Coachella Valley, ranging from a relatively low 0.04 inches in Palm Desert and Indio to 0.27 inches in Cathedral City.
Many Americans aching for normalcy as pandemic restrictions end are looking forward to traditional Fourth of July fireworks. But with a historic drought in the U.S. West and fears of another devastating wildfire season, officials are canceling displays, passing bans on setting off fireworks or begging for caution.
Fireworks already have caused a few small wildfires, including one started by a child in northern Utah and another in central California. Last year, a pyrotechnic device designed for a baby’s gender reveal celebration sparked a California blaze that killed a firefighter during a U.S. wildfire season that scorched the second-highest amount of land in nearly 40 years.
Some regions of the American West are experiencing their worst drought conditions in more than a century this year, said Jennifer Balch, director of Earth Lab at the University of Colorado.
But the outlook is poor at this time, given deepening drought, abundant dry fuels and hot early-season temperatures.
Farmers toil at the mercy of nature’s whims, which can prove particularly vexing in California.
Even before climate change, bouncing between drought and deluge was routine in the Central Valley, the state’s richest farming region. Humans have amplified these natural cycles by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, studies show, creating a future filled with what scientists recently dubbed “whiplash events.”
It’s another sign that California is in a drought with a historic crisis looming. The state’s snowpack, a crucial source of water for the state, is at 0% of average for June 1 after a historically dry winter, according to the California Department of Water Resources. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t any snow across the Sierra Nevada range. Rather it indicates that snow has entirely melted at the majority of the electronic survey stations used to monitor snow water equivalent.
Even as California moves toward a full reopening from pandemic restrictions next month, many counties are still in danger.
From drought.
Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom extended emergency drought orders to 41 counties across the state. According to the United States Drought Monitor, 84 percent of the West is now in drought conditions, with 47 percent rated as “severe” or “extreme.” In California, 73 percent of the state falls into those categories. And if the recent Palisades fire in western Los Angeles is any indication, an active wildfire season could already be here.
Lake Shasta this summer is facing possibly its lowest level in at least 44 years, and that could be bad news for the people who rely on it for drinking and irrigation water, as well as endangered salmon that depend on it to survive. Dam operators have to go all the way back to 1977 to compare how bad this year’s water situation is shaping up to be, said Don Bader, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the dam. “It’s dry. It’s second worst, so far. It’s probably going to exceed ’77. But the kicker is in ’77 we didn’t have all the requirements that we have now,” Bader said.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
