After weeks of uncertainty, forecasters say an incoming California heat wave will trigger rapid snowmelt on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada and cause more flooding in portions of the San Joaquin and Owens valleys this week.
Temperatures in Central California are forecast to climb into the high 80s and mid-90s beginning Wednesday and into the weekend, with the potential for some areas to approach daily records.
For days of infamy — Pearl Harbor and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — December has a handful. In this list of national anguish two anniversaries of deaths loom. One hundred and six years ago: on Dec. 2, 1913, Congress passed 43-25 (with 29 abstentions) a law drowning Hetch Hetchy, the natural twin of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, in order to provide water and power to San Francisco. On Dec. 24, 1914, John Muir died.
Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley was dammed and flooded nearly 100 years ago, but the prospect of draining the reservoir continues to inspire romantic imaginings about unlocking a brand-new outdoor-recreation mecca in one of the country’s most popular national parks. If we could return Hetch Hetchy to a more natural state — of the variety that stirred John Muir’s soul a century ago — would we be clearing a path for the emergence of Yosemite Valley 2.0?
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
