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Posted
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......
  • Weather Preferences: Hot & Sunny, Cold & Snowy
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......

http://unofficialnetworks.com/2015/01/more-ski-resorts-close-due-to-lack-of-snow

 

Still impacted snow levels across C.A. and Oregon.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Chino Hills, Calif
  • Location: Chino Hills, Calif

Earlier this year meteoroligists predicted that SoCal had a 50% chance of above normal rainfall from end of February on through March and April.  Largely based on the notion that "Pineapple Express" indicators were looking more positive and the so called "atmospheri rivers" may be instigated.  Can't say it's looking that way is it?  Isn't the Eastern Pacific cooling at the moment?

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Posted
  • Location: Camborne
  • Location: Camborne

Earlier this year meteoroligists predicted that SoCal had a 50% chance of above normal rainfall from end of February on through March and April.  Largely based on the notion that "Pineapple Express" indicators were looking more positive and the so called "atmospheri rivers" may be instigated.  Can't say it's looking that way is it?  Isn't the Eastern Pacific cooling at the moment?

 

No it certainly isn't and the longer term forecasts don't look brilliant either. Yes the eastern Pacific is cooling at the moment and the recent Pineapple Express was tad to far north.

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Posted
  • Location: Chino Hills, Calif
  • Location: Chino Hills, Calif

Well, I've received a measly tenth of an inch of rain today.  Not exactly a drought buster.  :D  But as long as it keeps the vegetation in the hills from drying out too much I'll take it.  Might get a little bit more tonight.  Probably the only moisture for awhile.

Edited by KeithinCali
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Posted
  • Location: Chino Hills, Calif
  • Location: Chino Hills, Calif

Got just under a half inch over night.  So it's about sixt tenths of a inch from this system.  Some lingering showers today.  Not too bad given that we weren't supposed to get much at all from this according to forecasts three or four days ago.  Doesn't do much to alleviate the drought but keeps the hills green and this wlll help stave off the fire danger until the latter half of the summer.

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Posted
  • Location: Chino Hills, Calif
  • Location: Chino Hills, Calif

Sierras recieved some healthy snow amounts over the weekend.  Not going to erase the snowpack defecit.  Not even close.  But it certainly helps.

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Posted
  • Location: Camborne
  • Location: Camborne

Once Again, A Record-Hot Winter for California

 

As Yogi Berra famously said, “it’s déjà vu all over again.†While much of the eastern U.S. digs out from yet another snow and ice storm, the West has capped off a decidedly toasty winter.

 

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/record-hot-winter-for-california-18737

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Posted
  • Location: Camborne
  • Location: Camborne
The Impacts of California’s Drought on Hydroelectricity Production

 

California’s hottest and driest drought in recorded history has shifted the sources of electricity with adverse economic and environmental consequences. The Pacific Institute has just completed and released a report that evaluates how diminished river flows have resulted in less hydroelectricity, more expensive electricity from the combustion of natural gas, and increased production of greenhouse gas emissions.

 

The current severe drought has many negative consequences. One of them that receives little attention is how the drought has fundamentally changed the way our electricity is produced. Under normal conditions, electricity for the state’s millions of users is produced from a blend of sources, with natural gas and hydropower being the top two. Since the drought has reduced the state’s river flows that power hundreds of hydropower stations, natural gas has become a more prominent player in the mix. This is an expensive change.

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Posted
  • Location: Ireland, probably South Tipperary
  • Weather Preferences: Cold, Snow, Windstorms and Thunderstorms
  • Location: Ireland, probably South Tipperary

/r/science reddit AMA just put up.

 

Science AMA Series: We are NASA and university scientists who study drought, “megadrought,†and how climate change can affect drought patterns now and in the future. Ask Us Anything!

 

Ben Cook -- I'm a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a co-author on a recent paper demonstrating that climate change, by the end of the 21st century, will make droughts in Western North America even worse than the driest time periods of the last 1000 years. I study past drought events, including the Dust Bowl and the “megadroughts†of the 12th and 13th centuries, and use computer simulations to investigate how climate change and global warming will affect drought in the future.

Megadrought paper (sub. required): http://goo.gl/g2fhvm[1]
Megadrought coverage: http://goo.gl/UCCyem[2]
Bill Patzert -- Hi everybody! I’ve been an oceanographer and climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 32 years. My research is focused on improving our understanding of important environmental problems ranging from El Niño and La Niña to longer-term climate change, especially important water issues, like our present punishing drought in the American West. I always try to balance my scientific research with a sense of social responsibility. In the final balance, the ultimate test of any science is if it has a credible use for public policy. During my career, I have attempted to communicate what I think we do know to as many people in the science community, the general public and the private sector as I can. I look forward to your questions.
Narendra Das -- I’m a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where I currently work for the NASA’s SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) mission. I developed an algorithm to retrieve global, high-resolution soil moisture data from the SMAP measurements that will provide significant information to monitor agricultural and hydrological droughts, and will also help improve the skills of weather and climate models to forecast drought, its onset and recovery.
Ben Zaitchik -- I'm a hydrologist and climate scientist in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. My research focuses on modern day drought patterns, drought prediction, and potential changes in drought patterns under climate change. Most of my work is on East Africa and the Middle East--two regions where drought has significant human impacts, and where climate change has the potential to intensify the severity of droughts in coming years.
We’ll be online at 1 pm EST on Mar. 26 to answer your questions about the link between drought and climate change, and what NASA and other scientists are doing to understand this challenge. Ask Us Anything!
 
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Posted
  • Location: Camborne
  • Location: Camborne

 AMS 9 previous droughts similar if not worse http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00774.1?af=R&

 

I'm struggling to understand what other droughts in the past 440 years has to do with the current dire conditions, (or this thread), bearing in mind California has the eighth biggest economy in the world.

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Posted
  • Location: St Austell,Cornwall
  • Location: St Austell,Cornwall
California governor order first ever water restrictions
 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32151413?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central

 

The governor of California has created the state's mandatory water reduction orders, following a historic drought.
The order mandates a 25 percent reduction in water sage for cities and town across the state.
Last year, Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed a state of emergency, after years of drought.
The state recorded it's lowest-ever snowpack, which will mean that water supplies from melting snow will be reduced in coming months.
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Posted
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......
  • Weather Preferences: Hot & Sunny, Cold & Snowy
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/fracking-california-water_n_6997324.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

 

Seems some odd choices are being made as to how best to use their precious water?

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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Camborne
  • Location: Camborne

California Rainy Season Ending; January-April rain in San Francisco Lowest on Record

 

The fourth consecutive severely dry California rainy season is drawing to a close. Rain-bearing low pressure systems typically stop bringing heavy rains to the state by mid-April, as the jet stream shifts to the north in its usual springtime migration. With almost no rain in the forecast for the next seven days, and the 16-day GFS model forecast showing mostly light rains affecting the northern portion of the state 8 - 16 days from now, California has likely seen over 95% of the precipitation that it’s going to get this anemic rainy season. What little precipitation did fall this winter came mainly in the form of rain, thanks to record-warm ocean temperatures off of the coast. This resulted in snow falling only at very high elevations, keeping the critical Sierra snowpack--which provides one-third of the state's water--at record low levels. According to the California Department of Water Resources, snow depths in the Sierras are the lowest on record for this time of year, only 2% of average, and the Southern Sierras have no snow at all--nearly three months earlier than usual. California's eight largest reservoirs are 30% - 83% below their historical average, and the portion of the state covered by the highest level of drought--"Exceptional"--was at 47% this week. The area covered by "Exceptional" drought peaked at a record 58% during the summer of 2014, and this mark may well fall during the summer of 2015.

 

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2969

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