The 'cruelest' Winter I've Ever Seen ... (think 'water')

"This has been what I'm now calling the 'cruelest' winter I've ever seen," exclaims the CEO of one California ski resort... and he is right.

According to official records, California's snowpack is the lowest on record for this time of year at around a mere 20% of the average since records began.

...

The drought is getting worse... not better.

( see chart )

California's Snowpack Drops To Record Low

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OPINION:

Desalination only helps solve Drinking-Water ... BUT
doesn't substitute irrigation for farming-n-ranching purposes.

( i.e. situation appears ... astonishingly-dire? )
.

Although the Northern California area has had their share of water this year due to an El Nino winter, the snowpac is what keeps the resevoirs full. Rain will tend to run off towards the ocean or evaporate quicker. In the form of snow, it slowly melts over the spring time. Nearly all of California's water is in above-ground man made lakes that are fed from rivers that are fed from snowmelt.....you get the idea.

a reply to: FarleyWayne

Well the northeast has plenty of snow every winter. I'm sure nobody will complain up here if we can send it to places that need it. Instead of oil pipelines, maybe they should be thinking of creating a pipeline to distribute water and melted snow. It would be a win win situation and probably create jobs!

a reply to: WeRpeons
Southern California already has pipelines running over 400 miles to take water from other places in the state. They've had ideas on the table to pipe it in from snowy places like Alaska, Montana, etc. The problems with the pipeine idea are ones of gravity, as the many mountains tend to go up before they go down. Water's heavy and takes a great deal of electricity to shove it up and over the mountain ranges. However, there are those who say that, along the 37th parallel, there is one long underground tunnel. Perhaps they can flood that with snow and send the water to Cali...

a reply to: FarleyWayne

I have to admit that when I read where California was diverting fracking water to irrigate its growing fields last year, it made me quite uneasy about the food supply. If it looks like doom and gloom, then I am looking for alternate sources of nutrients for this year.

BTW, the map above is inaccurate as far as I am concerned. Our precipitation levels near the central US-Can border have been the same as usual, but our temps have been way colder than normal on a consistent basis. It's been a lonnng perfect-for-hibernating winter where I live.

originally posted by: aboutface
a reply to: FarleyWayne

BTW, the map above is inaccurate as far as I am concerned. Our precipitation levels near the central US-Can border have been the same as usual, but our temps have been way colder than normal on a consistent basis. It's been a lonnng perfect-for-hibernating winter where I live.

The map was posted from a forecast before the events, and as far as the west and northwest is concerned, it is accurate. Forecasts are not always 100% perfect, as I'm sure you can appreciate. It does back up the OP's statements. I was in California for Thanksgiving day, and it was 90 degrees at the beach.

Cruelest winter?! Poor California.

I was in the famous ice storm of 98'

That was a cruel winter.

a reply to: FissionSurplus

El Nino just began.

I have wondered if it was possible to pump sea water into the Mojave desert basins and let nature do its thing and evaporate that water if the winds would carry that moisture to needed areas of the country.


Of course, I am sure there would be some environmental concerns and it would be considered a form of weather modification but we may need to look at things like that in the future. Pump enough water there and you could plant mangroves.

Wheres that "global warming" at when you need it??!

California just needs to fall into the ocean and give the rest of the country a break. What a bunch of whiners

Farmers have scaled back from their former levels and heard recently they are adjusting to 30% supply "agreed to" with State Water Board for this spring, summer.

Lake Mead (Arizona) is record low levels so it seems the west is drying-out long-term.

a reply to: Granite

Then perhaps it bears considering some drastic but expensive solutions?

To preserve rainwater and runoff, why not investigate putting in some beavers? There are lots of videos on how they have already transformed arid land.

As a second measure, the proposal to drought-proof all of Australia bears watching and investigating. It can be found here.

a reply to: Kali74

As I understand it, El Nino tends to affect Southern California more than Northern California. If El Nino has just begun, it will not affect the temperature, and will not help one iota with the lack of snow pack in the Sierra Nevada range.

Most of the farming in Cali is done from central Cali on further north, and as a rule, it doesn't really rain a whole lot during the growing season. The melting snow pack that feeds such rivers as the Sacramento, the Feather, and the Merced is not there this year, unfortuately.

These types of weather patterns are cyclic, as we all know, and hopefully, it will change again. Had I not spent the first 40 years of my life living in all sectors of Cali, I would assume that it's all like a Sunkist Soda commerical. California should have spent their time developing things like drip irrigation on a large scale, and encouraging people to not water their lawns every day, but to go back to the way nature intended it to be: A semi-arid desert somewhat like Phoenix.

a reply to: FissionSurplus

Yeah... El Nino came too late to help the drought and will probably end before next winter because it's a weak one. Oscillations are mostly cyclic, it seems though the cycles are increasingly out of whack... everywhere.

originally posted by: mikell
California just needs to fall into the ocean and give the rest of the country a break. What a bunch of whiners

And along with it, all of the produce and meat that is grown there and shipped across the country and around the world.

So a loss of California ag production would hit hard consumers’ wallets and their diets would become less balanced.This is because our state produces a sizable majority of American fruits, vegetables and nuts; 99 percent of walnuts, 97 percent of kiwis, 97 percent of plums, 95 percent of celery, 95 percent of garlic, 89 percent of cauliflower, 71 percent of spinach, and 69 percent of carrots and the list goes on and on. A lot of this is due to our soil and climate. No other state, or even a combination of states, can match California’s output per acre.

Lemon yields, for example, are more than 50 percent higher than neighboring states. California spinach yield per acre is 60 percent higher than the national average. Without California, supply of these products in our country and abroad would dip, and in the first few years, a few might be nearly impossible to find. Orchard-based products specifically, such as nuts and some fruits, would take many years to spring back.

...

For more than 50 years, the men and women who work California’s fertile fields have made this state the nation’s No. 1 agricultural producer and exporter. If it’s for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, all or a portion of the meal was probably grown right here in the Golden State.

Source

I hope that I don't have to point out that the lack of snow means lack of spring run-off which means and even bigger drought that makes growing most of what America eats very difficult and expensive.