The Driest Winter in 500 Years

[Harrier]

Harrier's Old Farmer's Almanac predicted rain through much of January for southern California

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by rubygreta

Worst case scenario - It does not rain, or barely rains (say less than an inch) this spring, and the summer is unusually hot. What are the consequences, with no meaningful rain until next fall?

You can't be serious.

[TheDragonslayer]

Originally Posted by Galaxie Girl

What do I think? I think I'm tired of all these chicken littles running around like it's the end of the world. Droughts happen. Get over it. We had a drought in the mid-late 1980s, lasted a few years, then we got more rain. The Dust Bowl in the 1930s was the result of a drought in the midwest that lasted several years, which happens every so often there as well. These things happen in cycles, why can't people just accept that and concern themselves with things we can actually do something about? Like building more reservoirs to capture the rain we get during the heavy rain seasons/cycles.

Where are we building these reservoirs, what rivers are we going to dam? Many may not be aware that most of the large resevoirs of water dammed up here in far northern California are already being piped down south for agriculture. I am not saying I am against more water storage, it is just where and who really gets all that water. Humboldt county and many of the counties around here do not benefit from that water and our rivers are also dry with most of the snow pack and water storage being sent down south. Are you all in So Cal and the Central valley prepared to lose some of your local valleys to water storage? Our water storage bank is running low and it is going to take some big storms to fill it back up. I remember the drought of the late 70's and I remember 75 being a soaker and that late 77 into 78 being a soaker and all of a sudden there was flooding and too much water. I also remember the drought from 88 to 91. I remember Mount Pinatubo erupting and the hot fall weather that following October that hit the bay area and the Oakland Hills fire. I lost all my yards in that fire and moved up here in February of 92 and from then on we had wet weather here in Humboldt that the locals said was normal when we got over 100 inches in a year. We could use a good large volcano to erupt and that should cool the earth off for a while, but it will not stop global climate change, just lower the temperature for a few years. But if more of Greenland melts, all that fresh water could slow down or stop the gulf stream and plunge Europe back into a cold faze.