It’s official — California is in a drought
Cold overnight temps keep Taylor Creek frozen, but there is no snow along the banks. Photo/Kathryn Reed
By Josh Richman and Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday officially declared that California is in a drought emergency, as the state struggled with the lowest-levels of rainfall in its 153-year history, reservoirs were at low levels and firefighters remained on high alert.
The governor asked Californians to reduce their water consumption by 20 percent. In practical terms, the drought declaration streamlines the rules for water agencies to transfer extra water from one part of the state to another. It also raises public awareness.
Brown was governor in 1976 and 1977, one of the most severe dry periods in the 20th century. The most recent extended drought was 1987-1992. The last governor to declare a drought declaration was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who did so during a period of low rainfall in 2008 and 2009. Brown lifted that declaration in 2011 after a wet winter.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack on Thursday was 17 percent of normal. Last year, most cities in the state received the lowest amount of rain in any living person’s lifetime — with records going back to 1850.
Well, the drought declaration will make the doom and gloom folks happy. Ninety-seven percent (97%) of all water on Earth is salt water. Perhaps we should take a portion of the California budget surplus to build some desalination plants?
My prediction – it’ll flood in February.
Why would you predict that? One flood won’t take care of a drought.
I see that you have started to explore the difference between weather and climate. Could you elaborate on your new found knowledge?
I am also curious about a cost analysis of desalination vs. increasing water efficiency.
Flooding has nothing at this point to do with climate. After the ground is without moisture for a long enough period of time it becomes hard and the rain will not sit and percolate down to the water table. Anything with an incline will have run off and thus we will have flooding. Same thing goes for the other extreme when the ground becomes saturated from too much moisture. So yes, I could see flooding in the near future myself if we get a deluge of moisture over a few days.
Oh yea, think food costs are high now? Wait until harvest time next summer when crop production is low related to water availability for irrigation.
Cosa,
The drought from 1990 to 1994 was reversed in one series of storms. I have pictures of me and my Akita in front of the Tahoe City dam in late October of 1994. The lake water level was hundreds of yards from where I was sitting. Then we took pictures of the Tahoe City pier which was also a hundred yards or more from the water line.
Late November or early December of that same year I have pictures of my front yard where the snow was so deep I couldn’t throw it over the berm. First week of January of 1995 Downtown Reno flooded along with Gardnerville. The lake was filled up in one winter.
I think in 1977 the 1st day to ski at Heavenly Valley was January 25th. So looks like history is repeating itself if not for man made snow. Cycle or global warming?
“The drought from 1990 to 1994 was reversed in one series of storms.”
No it wasn’t. What about the precipitation after that one event?
Wasn’t the flooding in Reno part of a rain on snow event? Which doesn’t do anything to help the snowpack.
I’m no dumb.
Weather vs Climate.
It is not that hard. Clinger doesn’t know the difference.
Jan 1981 No snow to open Carlos Murphy’s which was slated for late 1980 se we opted for Feb right after our first snow of the year.
Sometime in the early 80’s, perhaps 1981, Sierra Ski Ranch didn’t open until February. The season was almost lost.
I remember a report from a researcher who studied tree rings and he found (in about 1980) that the Sierras had experienced an abnormally wet period for the last 60 years and suggested that the ski industry, which depends on wet winters, was going to experience problems.
The rain fell on top of the massive snow fall.
The lake was refilled in one winter.
Carbon dating of tree rings in the Sierra Nevada dating back thousands of years indicates that there have been droughts persisting for 150 years in duration. Further, this carbon dating indicates that the period of our lifetime in this area has seen abnormally high precipitation compared to the historical record over the course of thousands of years.
Note to the Global Warming alarmists – facts are stubborn things, especially when they debunk scams like Global Warming.
The science pertaining to climate change is indisputable. What kind of buffoon would one have to be to ignore the consensus of opinion by 97% of real climate scientists from around the globe who wrote peer reviewed papers on the subject? http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/01/14/climate_change_another_study_shows_they_don_t_publish_actual_papers.hotmail
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/climate-change/science/climate-change-basics/climate-change-deniers/
The reason that climate change deniers cannot produce legitimate scholars that write papers for review by the scientific community is because they don’t exist in any real numbers and have no real facts. They rely on the power of the corporate media funded by the fossil fuel industry to make people believe that there is a difference of opinions by real scientists, when in reality only the smallest fraction disagree with anthropogenic climate change.
Of course there will always be those that would rather take Rush Limpaugh’s word for it because ya know liberty freedom and all. Try pulling your head out of your fox for a change and face up to reality.
That doesn’t disprove anything. You are bringing up a region that is drought prone as evidence? No one is saying that is evidence of climate change. The climatologists don’t say that. Nice straw man.
The science is not on your side.
Anything else?