California Drought - before & after pics

Saw this on the Weather Channel website this morning, before and after pictures of California lakes (the big ones that supply water) - YIKES

Dry Lakes

More: HuffPo Pics

This is the driest year since record keeping began (1840s), and not expected to get better any time soon, according to some scientists:

Californians need to be ready, because if some scientists are right, this drought could be worse than anything the state has experienced in centuries. B. Lynn Ingram, a paleoclimatologist at the University of California, Berkeley, has looked at rings of old trees in the state, which helps scientists gauge precipitation levels going back hundreds of years. (Wide tree rings indicate years of substantial growth and therefore healthy rainfall, while narrow rings indicate years of little growth and very dry weather.) She believes that California hasn’t been this dry since 1580, around the time the English privateer Sir Francis Drake first visited the state’s coast

Source

A lot of the talk about the high pressure ridge says its been around for 13 months and the longer it lingers, the less likely it is to leave. This is a really scary situation, especially for a state that grows nearly 1/2 of all US-produced fruits, vegetables and nuts.

Time to revive the Victory Garden??

The Industrial agricultural industry is the biggest consumer of the available water in this state. I now, I live here. Often the produce from these farms are shipped around the world. Like rice which requires fields of standing water to irrigate it.

If the farmers were to cut back some few percent all the residents would have all the water they need to water their stupid lawns and fill their stupid pools and fountains.

California's rivers and wetlands, and the critical San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem, have suf- freed serious degradation as a result of excessive water diversions. Much of the water taken out of the ecosystem goes to support California's industrial agriculture. Agriculture now uses ap- proximately 80 percent of California's developed water supply, but produces less than 2.5 percent of California's income.

I know its a PDF, just check out the first couple pages…

reply to post by intrptr


Seems it's Time to Build Desaltation Plants along the West Coast at the Exspense of the Taxpayers there..........Good Luck with that .

I guess no one ever thought of the technology available, to make it rain, huh? They're gonna sit there and pretend like the tech doesn't exist??? They can make it rain in the desert, but.....

Zanti Misfit
reply to post by intrptr

 

Seems it's Time to Build Desaltation Plants along the West Coast at the Exspense of the Taxpayers there..........Good Luck with that .

You mean "desalinization" plants?

Cost is to prohibitive. Besides, unlike the Middle East, we have underground aquifers. If the farm industry wouldn't use 80% of the states water, every one would have plenty, even during droughts.

Yea it sucks.. I live in Northern California and we are without winter this year. I was hoping for a good snowboarding snowboarding season but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen. I'm really upset most by the fact that the cost of water needed to grow my yearly tomatoes will be so high I won't be able to grow them. Especially when they demand Mandatory Water Rationing here soon, nobody will have their own private garden.
It's about time to move outta Cali, if/when the Desert Reclaims it's territory this States in a lot of trouble.

Double post

WOW, I know those lakes. If the water is that low, the crisis is much worse than people know.

Most of the water is in the upper levels, because the lay of the land expands greatly as the water level rises.

It is hard to imagine what is going to be happening this summer if we don't get a whole lot of rain soon.

reply to post by ns9504

I got the hell out of that state years ago. Had to take a pay cut to do it, and left many friends and family behind.
With people like Pelosi, Feinstein, Schwarzenegger, Boxer, Gary Condit… kalifornia;s voters maybe getting what they deserve.
The voting people of Kalifornia elected these officals:
Bell California, Convicted former Mayor Oscar Hernandez and co-defendants Teresa Jacobo, George Mirabal, George Cole and Victor Belo.
www.foxnews.com...
Charged with bribery, perjury and other charges were former SUHSD Superintendent Jesus Gandara, trustees Arlie Ricasa and Pearl Quinones, 16-year former board member Greg Sandoval and Henry Amigable
www.cbs8.com...
City Council members Mark Breceda and Manuel Garcia and former Councilwoman Rosemary Ramirez and retired Finance Director Abe De Dios appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday morning on charges of embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest.
www.pasadenastarnews.com...
Randy (Duke) Cunningham, a congressman from California, was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison in 2006 after pleading guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors.
www.freep.com...

This list goes on and on and on. I did a goog search “corrupt California officials” and took 0.31 seconds and resulted in over 6 million files!
The nice people of California have had to endure unfair taxation and overt challenges to their rights, freedoms, and peaceful livelihood.
A very old book that I have read, mentions how the author brings droughts to lands that offend Him. Hmmmmmm

BTW, what does " V122014Sundaypm31America/ChicagoSun" in my avatar mean?

The photos of those lakes mean nothing.

They are man made and the water levels are man controlled.

Bad planing on the agencies that run the lakes part.

Show photos of lake Tahoe and how its dried up????

These lakes were built to control floods not for new farms and more people.

Sorry, so it has'nt been this dry since 1580? So why was it dry in 1580? Too many cars?
There goes the "Global Warming" argument destroyed again.

Sorry but someone had to say it.

California is on the Pacific, and is affected by the same El Nino, La Nina, patterns as Australia and South America.

We had 10 years of drought end about 5-6 years ago. We have had wet, cold winters for the past few years

Maybe its California's turn for drought.

Then it will be our turn again in 5 years or so.

Call it Climate/Weather/whatever, doesnt matter....it is Planet Earth and the Solar system, doing its thing.