Water year ends with parched conditions
By Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times
The year of the brown lawn and shortened showers concludes today, with water officials citing bleak statistics and expressing hope that the next few months will bring the heavy rains California so desperately needs.
“Water year” 2015 was hot, dry and fiery, compounding the misery brought on by a fourth year of drought.
Water watchers keep track of precipitation and storage using Oct. 1 as a starting point. That day is considered the beginning of the wet season and the “water year.”
It was exactly halfway through the 2015 cycle — on April 1 — that Californians were schooled on just how dire the circumstance had become.
On that day, Gov. Jerry Brown stood in a barren field — one normally covered by several feet of snow — to announce historic water conservation restrictions. The Sierra snowpack’s water content measured just 5 percent of normal, obliterating the previous record low of 25 percent.
Driest winter I’ve seen in 53 years of living here fulltime. A shrinking lake with dried up streams.
Conserve water and stock up on your pantry.
Buy some firewood and candles and hope for a good winter with lots of snow!!!! Take care, OLS
Study: Sierra snowfall consistent over 130 years
“Snowfall in the Sierra Nevada has remained consistent for 130 years, with no evidence that anything has changed as a result of climate change…The analysis of snowfall data in the Sierra going back to 1878 found no more or less snow overall – a result that, on the surface, appears to contradict aspects of recent climate change models.”
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Study-Sierra-snowfall-consistent-over-130-years-3331631.php
Mr. Kubby, perhaps you could explain what point you are making. Are you trying to imply that there has been no lack of snowpack for the last few years? Or, are you simply trying to imply that we should not worry as things will undoubtedly get better, as the long-term view suggests? As your comment stands, it is difficult to discern what you are trying to say, in my humble opinion.
The article that you linked features a climate-change skeptic and his interpretation of the 130 year data. However, after 50 years in Lake Tahoe, my recollection (like OLS’s) says that this drought has been pretty dramatic.