Added humor above – click for original image
Governor Schwarzenegger Proclaims Drought and Orders Immediate Action to Address Situation
San Francisco’s Spring, driest on record:
The rainfall for the months of March, April and May in San Francisco were the driest in the City’s 159 seasons of record. The total this spring is just 0.47”, bringing the 2007-2008 season to 17.44”. Below are the Top 10 Driest SF Springs and the total for that respective season. Credit: Jan Null, GGWeather
|
Rank |
Year |
Spring |
Season |
|
1 |
2008 |
0.47 |
17.44 |
|
2 |
1959 |
0.68 |
10.46 |
|
3 |
1934 |
0.70 |
12.91 |
|
4 |
1997 |
1.03 |
22.63 |
|
5 |
1873 |
1.22 |
15.66 |
|
6 |
1972 |
1.30 |
11.06 |
|
7 |
1966 |
1.35 |
16.33 |
|
8 |
1916 |
1.40 |
27.12 |
|
9 |
2004 |
1.46 |
20.54 |
|
10 |
1877 |
1.52 |
11.04 |
From the press release issued June 4th, 2008:
Following two straight years of below-average rainfall, very low snowmelt runoff and the largest court-ordered water transfer restrictions in state history, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today proclaimed a statewide drought and issued an Executive Order, which takes immediate action to address a dire situation where numerous California communities are being forced to mandate water conservation or rationing. The lack of water has created other problems, such as extreme fire danger due to dry conditions, economic harm to urban and rural communities, loss of crops and the potential to degrade water quality in some regions.
“For the areas in Northern California that supply most of our water, this March, April and May have been the driest ever in our recorded history,” Governor Schwarzenegger said. “As a result, some local governments are rationing water, developments can’t proceed and agricultural fields are sitting idle. We must recognize the severity of the crisis we face, so I am signing an Executive Order proclaiming a statewide drought and directing my Department of Water Resources and other entities to take immediate action to address the situation.”
Today’s Executive Order directs the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to:
- Facilitate water transfers to respond to emergency shortages across the state.
- Work with local water districts and agencies to improve local coordination.
- Help local water districts and agencies improve water efficiency and conservation.
- Coordinate with other state and federal agencies and departments to assist water suppliers, identify risks to water supply and help farmers suffering losses.
- Expedite existing grant programs to help local water districts and agencies conserve.
This Executive Order also encourages local water districts and agencies to promote water conservation. They are encouraged to work cooperatively on the regional and state level to take aggressive, immediate action to reduce water consumption locally and regionally for the remainder of 2008 and prepare for potential worsening water conditions in 2009. As part of the Executive Order, DWR will work with locals to conduct an aggressive water conservation and outreach campaign.
Last month, DWR’s final snow survey of 2008 showed snowpack water content at only 67 percent of normal and the runoff forecast at only 55 percent of normal. As conditions continue to worsen across California, it underscores the state’s need for infrastructure improvements to capture excess water in wet years to use in dry years like this one.
“This drought is an urgent reminder of the immediate need to upgrade California’s water infrastructure. There is no more time to waste because nothing is more vital to protect our economy, our environment and our quality-of-life. We must work together to ensure that California will have safe, reliable and clean water not only today but 20, 30 and 40 years from now.
Read more from the press release and watch the video
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Anthony, I recommend you leave CA. I spent 4 months out there last year. That place is nucking futs….
I know what we should do. Dam the Merced River and fill Yosemite Valley with water. I’m kidding of course. I was there this weekend where I hiked to the top of El Capitan. I would really like to see the state reclaim Hetch Hetchy Valley. Put a reservoir somewhere else. What a waste!
What’s frustrating is Northern California has plenty of water, its SoCal that is so thirsty and lacks the resources. What I see coming from this is a few new reservoirs or expansion of existing reservoirs and maybe another aqueduct. The problems we’re having with the San Joaquin / Sacramento delta doesn’t help this situation.
Development along the Rio Grand in El Paso dried up the Rio Grand to a trickle. What is that saying? “Build your house on sand and …….”
There is no drought in California. There is not enough water for the people who live there. Two different things.
“The logical solution is to build more dams but the environmentalists want to tear down the existing dams… go figure.”
Arnold will want Utah and Colorado to build the dams and sell the water rights to California.
It’s a shame that Californians actually got the government they voted for, but that’s life.
California imports foreign cars, electricity from other states, and illegals from Mexico… so why not more water? Requisition a few trillion gallons from British Columbia. Barter some wine and lettuce… throw in some pistachios.
Barbara Boxer will, no doubt, come up with something brilliant to bring needed moisture to the state as long as it doesn’t include building anything related to supplying it.
How about an old boy scout trick: some clear plastic stretched out just above the ground, a string with a rock to pull down the center of the plastic and a bucket to catch the condensation. Several thousand around each house and everyone has homegrown water.
My brother came up with a simple inexpensive plan years ago that would take care of this quickly.
Give every Californian who wishes to relocate to Oregon 10,000 dollars to do so until Oregon diverts enough water to California to make us happy.
And if that plastic film is actually thin film solar cells, hey, generating electricity AND water.
Seriously, California is not the only place with a huge water deficit. Look at Las Vegas and Phoenix, for example.
Lester Snow Director of the Department of Water Resources?
and no one mentions it?
I mean really…
LES SNOW??????????
As a wastewater engineer I noticed that all of you have missed one of the most reliable water resources we have, reclaimed water. The quality of wastewater that our local wastewater treatment plant is required to produce before discharging into the SF Bay is better than many of the water sources for drinking water treatment plants. Our local treatment plant reclaims only 2% of the treated wastewater to be used for irrigating golf courses, parks, and school fields. This reclaimed water could be returned to the raw water side of the local drinking water treatment plant as a great hedge against drought. Unfortunately the local politicians and the general managers of the Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants are against it. It is too big a political hot potato.
Along with more dams we need to start reclaiming the water we use and then clean up.
Anthony, I too like the sly humor in your altered images, but you really should footnote or watermark that they’ve been modified. With all the web hits this site gets, somebody is bound to miss the joke, lift the image, and blame you for forgery or some such nonsense.
REPLY: Good idea, done.
Those that conserve water will be rewarded greatly with higher water bills! For some reason it happens no matter where the shortages occur.
ever notice how, when you see movies in LA or San Diego Or up the coast; every other house has a huge swimming pool that is undrinkable because of all the chemicals in it? If water is so hard to come by why do they all have pools? Are they all just that dumb?
“The politics of water are the new social engineering lever now that AGW is discredited.”
“It’s Chinatown, Jake.” (1934 does appear as one of your top dry years.)
It’s worth watching the politicians’ claims, and maybe even reminding them about snowpack on both sides of the Rockies. Of Colorado’s eight drainages, all of them are above average. 115% according to the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). The Bureau of Rec puts the San Juan River Drainage at 140%, and the Colorado River Drainage, feeding Lake Powel, at 120%, enough to raise the lake 49 feet. That’s a lot of water.
I lived in Central Florida near Disney, For years before Disney there was plenty of water and then they put in flood control, straightened out and deepened the rivers and streams dug canals and drained lots of swamps. Then Disney and millions of people to Florida. Many of my family still live down there and there is always a water shortage. The east coast of Florida and the South west coast of the state are the worst for population density along with the mega tourist areas around Orlando. Now they are fighting over the water in NW Florida like it is theirs and they have to right to enforce water restrictions on the locals in NW Florida and pipe the water to the overpopulated areas. Truth be known they need tropical storms to keep enough water available to support all the pretty grass and swimming pools. I moved to NE Alabama and now the Atlanta metro area has become very overpopulated and the water wars have started here also. Many of the rivers flow from Georgia to Alabama and the Georgia folks want to dam the rivers and divert the flows to the Atlanta area. I don’t mean some of the water I mean most of the water leaving Alabama with out. It makes one wonder about all the state, city and county planning boards. It seems that they never take resources into account when planning growth just how much more tax income suburb and city will bring over agriculture properties. Yep it is all about money and power. Water will be the source of the power, taxes will be the source of the money.
Just my 2 cents
Bill Derryberry
Arizona New Mexico and California are guaranteed a goodly portion of this reserve of water each year, some 8.23 million acre feet. Probably more in a year like this.
Lake Powell from outer space:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lake_powell_utah.jpg
Edward Abbey must be spinning in his grave.
After bustin’ through that rock I can understand why that longhorn died…
Yep. Dry here in Fresno / Central Valley, CA. Normal rainfall for the year is about 14 inches. This year we had a really good Jan through Feb., then in March the climate change bastards shut off the spigot – we will finish the rain season with only 8 1/4 inches of the wet stuff.
PS, Much of Calif is considered a Mediterranean climate, were we have virtually no rain in the summer, and lots from Dec. through May.
Ever notice how, when you see movies in LA or San Diego Or up the coast; every other house has a huge swimming pool that is undrinkable because of all the chemicals in it? If water is so hard to come by why do they all have pools? Are they all just that dumb?
No, we’re that much better off than the rest of the world, one of the reasons why some hate and resent us so. We have it too good.
I would have to agree with the physical reality that “From the Tundra” points out. Colder Pacific waters would certainly point towards drier conditions in California due to the cold ocean currents off the coast of California in just the same way as the Atacama Desert in Chile is dry even thought it is on the coast – near shore cold water.
You really can’t blame people for wanting to live in a xeric climate regime. It was 65 degrees and 98% relative humidity this morning in Iowa when I walked to work. Its 73 degrees and 88% RH right now at 1:41 am on my horrendously placed (stuck to the side of a building) weather station here. Miserable, if you ask me. I’d take cool, dry desert mornings over this any day. We are headed towards a year to match records set in the disastrous flood year of 1993 if the rain and cool weather doesn’t let up. The local US Corps of Engineers are already issuing warnings that our flood control reservoirs are going to overflow before the end of June if we keep getting the same amount of precip we have been receiving. We probably haven’t gone a stretch of more than 4 days without rain since late March. Can anyone guess that this will cause greatly increased food commodity prices?
Perhaps the Watercone (google it) should not just be used as something for less developed countries. Maybe the rich west should also use them, as well as water butts for places like England!
Anthony re: wattsupwiththat (15:19:17) :
Noted your closing comment, “…they apparently care more about the welfare of a weed than a little boy who died….”
Thought you might be interested in this comment by Ralph Peters in a column in the New York Post [9/21/05] which struck me as the truth the moment I saw it – as did yours: “Leftists care nothing for real human beings. They only care about causes in the abstract—and who does a thing is far more important than what actually gets done.”
Well, it’s long been a theory that rainfall is the result of dancing. There is much proof to support this theory. Rainfall increases with increased dancing. It started with the dance craze in the “Roaring Twenties” then increased with the increase in Lindy Hop dancing during the 30’s and 40’s continuing with disco dancing in the 70’s followed more recently by all-night rave parties and hip-hop dance clubs.
Drought is just AGR (anthropogenic rainfall) masked by natural forces and it will return with a vengeance. We must remember that AGR causes extremes in rainfall, yes, even drought.
We must not allow denier politics to overcome needed legislation that would curb out impact on AGR. We must act before it is too late! Protect our Planet!
The second link in my last post “Dancing Ban” is “http://reason.tv/video/show/59.html”. It worked on the test bed I used but not in the “awaiting moderation” display.
“Arnold will want Utah and Colorado to build the dams and sell the water rights to California.”
Here in Colorado, they brow beat us about low flow shower heads, and high efficiency toilets. Then we can ship the water downstream to Las Vegas so they can build golf courses in the desert and spray water in the air so the tourons (tourist morons) will go ooh-ahh.
I hope that CA has already reassessed the portion of its hydroelectric power supply which is “reliable” as opposed to “source of opportunity” power. They’ve had 8 years since they got the wakeup call.