California Drought (Los Angeles, Sacramento, Oroville: bankrupt, movie theaters, university)

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by saibot

I recall some years ago we were in a drought and then we had a record-breaking rainy seaons. I think it was the second or third highest total ever recorded in the state, at least in some areas. Every lake and reservoir was full; we had water coming out our ears. And they were still not saying the drought was over. People started wanting to know how much it had to rain for the d*n drought to be over.

The official reply? "It'll be over when we say it's over."

Where have we heard that before? Oh ya, Covid.

[Vision67]

California storms: Reservoirs are filling quickly, boosting water supplies after years of drought

Some Bay Area reservoirs are 100% full, as Oroville rises 97 feet

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/01...rs-of-drought/

"Six atmospheric river storms since the end of December have dumped half a year’s worth of rain on San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and other Northern California cities in two weeks. The ferocious weather has saturated soils and bolstered runoff while also smothering the Sierra Nevada in snow, leaving the statewide snowpack Wednesday at a breathtaking 226% of its historical average and setting up reservoirs to receive more water when it melts later this spring.

“There’s no getting around it. This is great for reservoir storage,” said Jeffrey Mount, a professor emeritus at UC Davis and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s water center. “It will clearly help the drought. We are likely to have full reservoirs this spring because there’s such a huge snowpack.”

[Igor Blevin]

The problem with early rains like this is, the reservoirs will be drained in anticipation of spring rains for flood control. You can't go into March with topped off reservoirs and a chance for heavy rain and no place to store it. When California doesn't get those spring rains, you start off with half-empty reservoirs and a lack of water supply.

It doens't matter how much rain you get in December.

Snow pack matters, so you hope spring rains are cold and not warm, so they don't prematurely melt the snow pack.

[marino760]

Originally Posted by saibot

In other words, not happening any time soon. They might as well call the current situation "normal."

Because it is normal. I lived in CA for 50 years. It was always the same, a few years of little rain and then deluge. Even in the 70s, years of little rain everyone was asked to cut back on water. Native plants and wildlife were adapted to survive in this type of climate over tens of thousands of years.
The big difference is that now CA has 3-4 times as many people as it did 50 years ago.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by marino760

The big difference is that now CA has 3-4 times as many people as it did 50 years ago.

Well, twice as many people as back then. But definitely the population as a huge impact.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by marino760

Because it is normal. I lived in CA for 50 years. It was always the same, a few years of little rain and then deluge. Even in the 70s, years of little rain everyone was asked to cut back on water. Native plants and wildlife were adapted to survive in this type of climate over tens of thousands of years.
The big difference is that now CA has 3-4 times as many people as it did 50 years ago.

That's what I'm trying to say. I was born here in California in 1969. Even though I was very young at the time, I was a fearful child and recall the 1970s drought as something scary. I worried that if I turned on the faucet, no water would come out!

Obviously, that didn't happen and for my entire life there have been dry years, dry stretches of years, and wet years. You are right that the native vegetation and animals survive. There's a seasonal pond in the hills near me that was completely dry for about four years. Then we had a wet winter, and that spring the pond was full of frogs. Where did they come from? They must have been biding their time under the ground somewhere, but they certainly didn't die off just because of drought.

It IS normal, but no one wants to call it normal because that is not "news" and not a "crisis."

[marino760]

Originally Posted by saibot

That's what I'm trying to say. I was born here in California in 1969. Even though I was very young at the time, I was a fearful child and recall the 1970s drought as something scary. I worried that if I turned on the faucet, no water would come out!

Obviously, that didn't happen and for my entire life there have been dry years, dry stretches of years, and wet years. You are right that the native vegetation and animals survive. There's a seasonal pond in the hills near me that was completely dry for about four years. Then we had a wet winter, and that spring the pond was full of frogs. Where did they come from? They must have been biding their time under the ground somewhere, but they certainly didn't die off just because of drought.

It IS normal, but no one wants to call it normal because that is not "news" and not a "crisis."

And don't forget all the natural dry lakes in the SoCal desert like El Mirage that developed thousands of years ago that were once filled with water and now in wet years like this, will hold water again. It's a natural cycle.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by saibot

I was born here in California in 1969. Even though I was very young at the time, I was a fearful child and recall the 1970s drought as something scary. I worried that if I turned on the faucet, no water would come out!

Apparently one of the driest years in California was in the 1970s.

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/n...ornia-history/

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...r-in-a-century

The year, measured from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021, is the driest year since 1924 and mirrors the conditions seen in 1977, which had the lowest level of water runoff in California's history.

[Suesbal]

Does anyone here remember Goldilocks-pleasing weather throughout the entire state?
https://abcnews.go.com/US/extreme-dr...ry?id=96387910

[Vision67]

California storms: A 2-inch fish is limiting how much water can be captured for cities and farms

Trump and Newsom rules to protect endangered Delta smelt have curbed Delta pumping by nearly half since Jan. 3

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/01...ies-and-farms/

"The most drenching storms in the past five years have soaked Northern California, sending billions of gallons of water pouring across the state after three years of severe drought.

But 94% of the water that has flowed since New Year’s Eve through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a linchpin of California’s water system, has continued straight to the Pacific Ocean instead of being captured and stored in the state’s reservoirs.

Environmental regulations aimed at protecting a two-inch-long fish, the endangered Delta smelt, have required the massive state and federal pumps near Tracy to reduce pumping rates by nearly half of their full limit, sharply curbing the amount of water that can be saved for farms and cities to the south."