California's Drought. (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose: ski resorts, 2014, houses)

[cre8lite]

& on the other end of the spectrum....southern Nevada has received almost double their normal rain amounts. Pahrump usually gets 4 inches of rain each year, we're close to 8 !!!

[Bulldogdad]

Its gonna be a baaaaaaaaaad year even if we get a wet spring or late winter water.

[Dawn.Davenport]

Originally Posted by DCMann2

From what I understand there's a high pressure ridge sitting north of Washington state that's diverting our normal winter storms around through Canada and into the top of the US, comepletely bypassing the west coast

Excellent! This is what I was curious about. My hunch was that it must have something to do with either high pressure or ocean water temperature (El/La Nino/a). It's weird that high pressure would remain stuck in one spot for so long.

[DMenscha]

Originally Posted by Dawn.Davenport

Excellent! This is what I was curious about. My hunch was that it must have something to do with either high pressure or ocean water temperature (El/La Nino/a). It's weird that high pressure would remain stuck in one spot for so long.

As our weather guru BayAreaHillbilly points out, this is called a Rex Block of the jet stream, it's not unknown, but it certainly has become a major PITA for us in CA this year.

Today we had teaser clouds overhead with no moisture in them (well there wasn't any precip anyway). Argggghhh.

[BeauCharles]

Our eternal optimistic weather guy in Chico said to don't give up hope yet (since there's a lot of the rainy season left). There isn't an El Nino or La Nina this year - the ocean temps are kind of neutral, so hopefully we'll get a big shift that they can't quite forecast yet.

[Wilson502]

Originally Posted by DCMann2

From what I understand there's a high pressure ridge sitting north of Washington state that's diverting our normal winter storms around through Canada and into the top of the US, comepletely bypassing the west coast. 2013 is the driest year on record everywhere in California by a huge margin and things are not expected to get any better until March as the rainy season starts winding down. It's extremely worrying as our rivers are down, snow pack is only 11% of normal, our reservoirs are down, and vegetation isn't getting any water. People who are loving the warm, sunny winter days are blind to what's happening right now. It's possible the rain will come back next winter and I sure as hell hope it does, but if this persists for another year or two we're going to be in heaps of trouble. This is no joke.

Yep and your worthless government has done nothing to address the problem of water supply in the state. Its had its time to do something about it, but it may be too little too late now. Southern California should of started a massive desalination project 10 yrs ago to provide them with a sustainable water supply instead of draining the states water reserves and pulling water from out of state rivers (CO river in particular)

[Fontucky]

The Colorado River is "out of state?" When did that happen?

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by DCMann2

From what I understand there's a high pressure ridge sitting north of Washington state that's diverting our normal winter storms around through Canada and into the top of the US, comepletely bypassing the west coast. 2013 is the driest year on record everywhere in California by a huge margin and things are not expected to get any better until March as the rainy season starts winding down. It's extremely worrying as our rivers are down, snow pack is only 11% of normal, our reservoirs are down, and vegetation isn't getting any water. People who are loving the warm, sunny winter days are blind to what's happening right now. It's possible the rain will come back next winter and I sure as hell hope it does, but if this persists for another year or two we're going to be in heaps of trouble. This is no joke.

You are 100% correct! Like you said, it's the entire west coast. Snoqualmie Pass east of Seattle only has a couple of inches of snow on the ground when they should have several feet by now. the weak systems that have been getting through up there drop little rain and the snow levels mostly remain high. After California, Washington is the next big ag state on the west coast. The price of food is likely to go up a lot as usually, one state may have enough supplies to offset a shortage in another but that won't happen this time. In southern California we have citrus groves and avacados which will also require extra irrigation which could drive up prices. People who love the lack of rain are really not well educated about life.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Bulldogdad

Its gonna be a baaaaaaaaaad year even if we get a wet spring or late winter water.

You may be right. that's just a late start unless it goes through July but what are the chances of that?

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Dawn.Davenport

Excellent! This is what I was curious about. My hunch was that it must have something to do with either high pressure or ocean water temperature (El/La Nino/a). It's weird that high pressure would remain stuck in one spot for so long.

it's weird that it's happening in winter and it's bad that it is. In summer, the Pacific High should be there but in the last few summers it's been very weak. trouble is, there aren't too many storms out there at the time of year. Once in a while there will be but no usually. However, the high is strong during the winter when the storms are in the pacific.