From the Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Cliff Mass
President Trump has suggested that water be transported from the Pacific Northwest to California to help fight fires and for agricultural use.
This idea was strongly criticized by many, including the authoritative Seattle Times ClimateLab, which is supported by disinterested, civic-minded advocacy groups and individuals (see below).
But perhaps, examining the weather situation this year, President Trump’s error was not in the general idea, but in the direction of water flow.
Specifically, California should consider sending water to the Pacific Northwest, particularly this year.
To illustrate, below is the latest 180-hour forecast precipitation accumulation over the western U.S.
The mountains of northern California and the Sierra Nevada will receive at least twice what will fall on the Cascades and Olympics.
Los Angeles, yes, LA… will get about the same precipitation amount as Seattle.
Do you want to be shocked? If so, look at the forecast precipitation during the next week at Blue Canyon Airport on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada (just northwest of Lake Tahoe). The high-resolution US GFS model is going for about 50 inches of snow!
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This pattern has happened again and against this winter. As a result, the reservoirs in California are above average, with some close to being full, EVEN BEFORE the massive CA snowpack starts to melt.
Contrast California’s wet bounty with the current situation of the Yakima drainage, which is currently well below normal (see below).
Now that I have convinced many of you of the necessity of shipping water north from sodden northern California to the parched Pacific Northwest, is this idea practical?
It may be!
Far easier than the famous water works of southern California, in which water from the Owens Valley was shipped hundreds of miles to LA across formidable terrain.
Using Google Maps, it only took me seconds to find a nice route from the wet northern CA mountains to the dry domain of Yakima and eastern WA. I am sure many of you could do better.
Mostly level or downhill…and I have hardly optimized the route!
In short, out-of-the-box thinking is needed to allow the West Coast to deal with the frequent north-south imbalances in precipitation. Northern CA water is not fated to only go south. In many ways, going north is more practical.
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As long as they don’t ship more people this way (unless they’re conservatives)…
Anyway, this is somewhat counterintuitive, given that we just came out of a La Niña winter and devastating SoCal fires. Where I live, we usually have below average snowfall during La Nina. Not this winter. Now, La Niña is ending, so we’re in a good position heading into spring and summer on the Colorado Front Range. The current drought map shows us completely drought-free.
California (and the Feds) already get the Klamath water. And it drains directly to the ocean.
Giving them more water would be silly and redundantredundant.
Would you please repeat that? 😎
We’ve all done it at one time or another.
Redundancy Department of Redundancy strikes again!
And also, Redundancy Department of Redundancy strikes again, as well.
Fixed it.
Humor – a difficult concept.
— Lt. Saavik
Firesign Theatre
Department of Redundancy Department
and
The Natural Guard
For awhile I lived in Yreka. I’ve seen some of this first hand. COPCO dam was built to provide electricity to Oregon and California, hence CO. The rest was power company. The flow down the Klamath River was controlled by the release from COPCO depending on the need for electricity in the area, sometimes up and down multiple times a day.
In order to avoid the radical changes in water release, another dam was built slightly downriver to catch water from the COPCO dam and release it gradually to maintain an even flow down the Klamath so that there would be less flooding and fewer times of no flow due to drought. This was Irongate Dam.
Newsome, in his infinite wisdom, had both dams torn out, thus releasing all the water and silt down the river and to the sea all at one time. Now the held water is gone, the natural flow has been reestablished, and the river will now flood at some times and at other times have no flow at all depending on the season and the year. Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.
Seems like “It’s déjà vu all over again”” should fit in here somewhere. 😎
While Texas is having a drought.
Doesn’t seem necessary.
Granted, it’s been a few years, but the last time I saw the Columbia River, it was a tad bit more than a trickle.
Sending water to CA from the Columbia River Basin came up 10-15 years ago and environmentalist lost their minds. They cited all sorts of stuff but mostly we have to save the salmon and shipping water to CA will hurt them besides that we want to remove all the dams. Local radio host came up with his own proposal, lets not pull it from a reservoir lets pull it from the river just before it becomes brackish and is lost to the ocean. Environmentalist lost their minds a second time. No pleasing that group.
But no, we are forced by the courts to ship CA our power even when we are low on power, if we built water pipes to CA a judge would force us to send them our water too no matter what the PNW water supply is like..
California can’t send water to people who need it. the smelt are more important than the humans and they need the water. how cruel can you be.
I hate to be the turd in the punch bowl here but we are talking about two very liberal/progressive states here. California has been in the news highlighting their water management. I don’t know how efficiently Washington manages its water. Helping either state would amount to enabling. Enabling crappy government is a bad thing.
I wasn’t familiar with Blue Canyon airport. Checked it out.
“DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LAND WITH SNOW ON THE RUNWAY. NO SNOW REMOVAL SERVICES ARE PROVIDED.”
52 inches? Ouch.
For the Lake Tahoe area I normally monitor: https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/usa/california/south-lake-tahoe-airport-cam.html
Humorous.
I suggest there’s much water closer to SoCal – many mountains in the west. Distribution and transport of it are the challenges.
And… there’s been a costing problem, some users have rights to a quota at a price so do not have motivation to conserve unless they are using almost all of their quota.
I’ve seen good examples in eastern WA and northern UT, essentially variations of trickle irrigation instead of throwing water up in the air.
There’s much water in WA state, including a huge river that runs through dry eastern WA – the Columbia.
Oh! that river comes from Canada – will Trump put a tariff on it? :-o)
I suspect Cliff’s tongue was firmly planted in his cheek when he wrote that piece. He was off a bit on water having to be moved over mountains as the water from Owens Valley is almost pure gravity flow.
I would think that reverse osmosis would be a much more stable source of water for Southern California than water from the Colorado River or the Central Valley.
BTW, drip irrigation is very common in SoCal.
Why not build a reservoir in state instead then the distance to transport needed water is much shorter.
Exactly. Pacific Northwest sure has lower cost and more reliable options than transporting water from North Cal. At the same time, when there is some excess, North Cal water can be used more locally.
Excess of water in North Cal is not a perennial state. Some years they have a lot, some years they have shortages. Should expensive infrastructure be built to be used sometimes? Should Pacific Northwest depend on unreliable source?
Shipping water from CA to WA might seem like a good idea, but is truly stupid. How are you going to ship, by tank car, build a pipeline, ship in gallon jugs from Kroger store?
No matter how good a plan you come up with the Climaunistas will block it. The only plan they will go with is opening the flood gates and dumping the water into the ocean and then take out the dams. That has been their ONLY plan for decades.