Major storm brings needed rain to L.A., but at a cost
Hopefully someone is monitoring the rain with a Geiger counter... And while scientists claim no "one" event can be attributed to climate changes due to AGW, this has all the earmarks of what has been happening globally for the past decade... areas going through severe prolonged drought to then be soaked with drenching rains in a short period of time thus totally destroying crops and causing more runoff than actually benefitting the soil. Scientists predicted that human forcing of the hydrologic/carbon cycles would bring erratic rains and uneven dispersal. It has also effected monsoon rains in Asia and we have seen this same MO in South America, Africa, Europe. Places not used to getting such rains have been inundated with huge deluges and droughts have been more severe due to more heat in the atmosphere increasing evaporation rates. People need to reconsider where they choose to build their homes and grow their food if this indeed is to be the "new normal."
UPDATE: 2-24-14:
Where Is California's Water Going?
Even at this stage people cannot admit they themselves brought this on by their rapacious consumption of water and fossil fuels that brought about drier conditions along with climate change. We will go extinct pointing our bony finger at some invisible entity. Hubris kills. Oh, and it isn't a fish's fault... IT'S OURS. There is or was enough water FOR IT ALL if we humans weren't so damned self important. Did all the rich living in their mansions empty their Olympic sized swimming pools yet?
UPDATE: 2-15-14:
Los Angeles Is Finally Starting To Run Out Of Water
Cachuma Lake, a crystalline mountain resource, is disappearing
These 11 Cities May Completely Run Out Of Water Sooner Than You Think
Can you guess which city is number one?
Which city will be the first to have to be evacuated and used as a monument to our wastefulness and greed?
Also see:
Colorado River Releases Slashed To Historic Lows
Climate shifts, drought, fracking... but let's just keep taking from the Colorado River system and keeping those Vegas fountains going!
UPDATE: 2-11-14:
California's Drought Could Be the Worst in 500 Years
The remains of Cachuma Lake, the main water source for 200,000 people in southern Santa Barbara County. Ruaridh Stewart/ZUMA
California Drought Hits Farmers Hardest
Our food prices will be hit hard as well.
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Again, take a look at reference to jet stream anomalies.
Loss Of Arctic Ice Leads To Drought In California
Tied to this:
The "Polar Vortex" Freezing Us Today Due In Part To Global Warming
(See original video with this article at main link.)
Excerpt:
"As California's drought deepens, 17 communities across the state are in danger of running out of water within 60 to 120 days, state officials said Tuesday.
In some communities, wells are running dry. In others, reservoirs are nearly empty. Some have long-running problems that predate the drought.
The water systems, all in rural areas, serve from 39 to 11,000 residents. They range from the tiny Lompico County Water District in Santa Cruz County to districts that serve the cities of Healdsburg and Cloverdale in Sonoma County.
And it could get a lot worse.
"As the drought goes on, there will be more that probably show up on the list," said Dave Mazzera, acting drinking-water division chief for the state Department of Public Health.
snip
State health officials are in discussion with leaders of other agencies, including the state Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to work on immediate solutions, he added. Those could include everything from trucking in water to the health department providing emergency funds for drilling new wells or connecting faltering systems to other water systems.
A similar list of vulnerable communities was compiled during California's last drought, which lasted from 2007 to 2009. But the current drought is more severe. Less rain fell in 2013 than in any year since California became a state in 1850.
Even though some rain is forecast for Thursday, major storms are desperately needed this winter and spring to replenish depleted reservoirs, rivers and the Sierra Nevada snowpack -- which on Tuesday stood at 14 percent of normal.
"This is a statewide drought. This is a serious drought," Bill Croyle, director of the state Drought Task Force, said Thursday. "It's all hands on deck."
End of excerpt:
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How bad will it have to get before people connect these dots? These types of megadroughts are happening globally more frequently and lasting longer. This impacts not only land but food production, food prices, health, livelihoods and life itself. As I have been writing here for years, conservation is the key. This area is also growing in population with a rapacious thirst and a wasteful attitude. Golf courses, fountains, casinos, desert communities all expecting to have all the water they want whenever they want it along with extraction companies invading every section of this country to frack it to death. It is all simply unsustainable. Now, they will be forced to go to the expensive band aid action of desalination? What happens when we suck the oceans dry?
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