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US drought report: 83 percent of California free from drought after months of storms

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studyguy

Member
The 24 ft is very misleading, theres only about 8ft of snow at 8k ft elevation. The rest got washed away with rain last weekend. Makes for great pics of the rivers but does not solve the drought. Still a long way to go and you might as well flip a coin as to how we end up.

Aye, a lot was expected to melt rather quickly again anyway due to a warmer weather. literally the same exact thing happened last year when we had bursts of snow dropping early in the year.

Makes me real sad personally since by March, Mammoth was basically all slush.
 

SpecX

Member
He told us there wasn't really a drought. Now he's right. Yet another Trump win!

giphy.gif
 

Domino Theory

Crystal Dynamics
I know this isn't cause to just go back to the old ways of using water a shit load, but my heart is melting at all the relief that's happened and more left to come.

<3 my home state. Stay strong, nerds.
 

bronk

Banned
My grass is looking nice and green. I wonder if my neighbors regret those ugly rock lawns they installed.
 

Ashhong

Member
Apparently we hadn't had a day of rain that reached above .3 inches since Feb last year till October, then it was constant (not saying heavy every day, but showers at least that hit above .3 to even above 1in) into late November. So good stuff.

I don't remember any of that lol. Weird. I remember maybe rain once or twice a week, maybe twice a month.
 
Looks like the drought continues to subside in No Cal.

Has there been any talk on what impact this might have on agriculture? This year? Over the next few years?

It would be amazing if this had a large positive impact on food prices.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Update!

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Feds-Thanks-to-storms-nearly-half-of-California-10886358.php

This month’s powerful storms have earned California the not-so-trivial distinction of being drought-free across nearly half the state.

The U.S. government’s Drought Monitor on Thursday classified 49 percent of California as being without drought conditions, an astonishing recovery from a year ago when just 5 percent of the state was considered removed from peril. It’s the most area marked free of drought since April 2013.

All of the Bay Area, except for a tiny portion of Santa Clara County, was drought-free, according to the federal analysis, as was the northern half of the state, from San Francisco to the Oregon border.


The improving water picture comes amid a January that is closing in on rain and snow records across the state. In the Northern Sierra, where precipitation is most vital for filling reservoirs, more rain has already fallen this winter than during an entire average year, while snowpack across the mountains was an impressive 189 percent of average on Thursday.

San Francisco has seen 18.45 inches of rain since Oct. 1, nearly 150 percent of average for the period.

While the situation in the north has dramatically turned around, in part because last winter’s weather also provided relief, half of California continues to wrestle with at least some stage of drought.

The Santa Barbara area, where reservoirs have shown an uncanny inability to fill, is in the worst shape, according to the Drought Monitor. Other parts of the southern coast and San Joaquin Valley also remain dry.

For the first time since January 2014, however, none of California was classified in the Drought Monitor’s most severe category of “Exceptional Drought.”


State water managers have welcomed the improved conditions but aren’t yet claiming victory. The wet weather could take a turn for the worse, and the future will undoubtedly bring other dry periods, they say.

Additionally, a lot more rain is needed to fill California’s over-pumped aquifers and restore the health of its ecosystems, including Sierra Nevada forests, which have seen an unparalleled tree die-off.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Sucks about Santa Barbara. That's supposed to be an otherwise beautiful area.

920x920.jpg


Good, no more rain for a bit!

GODDAMN IT.

At first I was pretty relieved that we just barely missed that severe area...only to find out that my city (Northridge) just barely made it. ARGH.
 
Sucks about Santa Barbara. That's supposed to be an otherwise beautiful area.



GODDAMN IT.

At first I was pretty relieved that we just barely missed that severe area...only to find out that my city (Northridge) just barely made it. ARGH.

Does anybody in the valley even keep a lawn anymore? I could swear y'all just live in apartment buildings by now.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Does anybody in the valley even keep a lawn anymore? I could swear y'all just live in apartment buildings by now.

I still see a few here and there (mostly in the richer parts of Northridge, Calabasas, Burbank, and such) but yeah, I hardly see much of em anymore.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
UPDATE: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/California-drought-monitor-map-11-percent-severe-10920707.php

About 47 percent of California still faces a drought, and the conditions are severe in 11 percent of the state, according to the most recent weekly report from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Some 83 percent of the state was in the monitor's second-most severe category one year ago.

The dramatic changes in the drought map comes amid a rainy season marked by a series of moisture-packed atmospheric rivers that drenched the parched West Coast and dumped copious amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada. All of this rain has ended the drought in most of Northern California.

As a result, nearly all of the state's major reservoirs are currently above historical average levels, the Drought Monitor reports. The state's two largest reservoirs, Oroville and Shasta, are currently at 126 percent and 124 percent, respectively. What's more, the Sierra snowpack is now at an impressive 173 percent of average.

"Looking at the map of California three months, we were seeing 73 percent of the state in drought and now we're seeing 47 percent," said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska. "If we go back to the start of the water year, which is Oct. 1, California had over 83.5 percent is drought. The map that came out a year ago, 94.7 percent of the state was in drought. We've made a big change toward the positive. This winter has been very good for the drought."

Despite the promising situation, water regulators extended conservation measures on Wednesday and will continue to do so until at least the spring as a precaution against a dry weather spell.

3x6GPul.jpg


Also, there's been so much rain this past 6 weeks that a giant crater is growing in the main spillway of Oroville Dam:

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Oroville-Dam-spillway-hole-erosion-water-reservoir-10920358.php

The massive crater in the main spillway of Oroville Dam continued to grow Thursday as state officials released more water from Lake Oroville to keep up with the stormwater and snowmelt filling up the reservoir. The hole is now about 45-feet-deep and 300-feet-wide by 500-feet-long, according to KCBS.

As the lake level continues to rise, officials are saying they'll likely release water from Oroville Dam's unpaved emergency spillway for the first time ever on Saturday. The emergency release has never been used, and crews are clearing trees and brush if it's needed.


The lake is now at 98 percent capacity.

Earlier this week, chunks of concrete flew off the nearly mile-long spillway, creating a 200-foot-long, 30-foot-deep hole. Engineers don't know what caused the cave-in that is expected to keep growing until it reaches bedrock.

The department does not expect the discharge from the reservoir to exceed the capacity of any channel downstream as the water flows through the Feather River, into the Sacramento River and on to the San Francisco Bay.

Officials say Oroville Dam itself is sound and there is no imminent threat to the public.
 

ZoddGutts

Member
It's going to rain today and tomorrow here in SoCal, also later next week. I don't mind since it's keeping the water bill way down.
 

hipbabboom

Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
I wonder what the rate of usage is?

BTW, while watching youtube videos while researching on how to become a prepper, I saw that it takes years for rain water to soak into the bedrocks that make up the water table. I wonder how much water comes from these sorts of sources (i.e. wells) and if they're counted. It seems like a troublesome delayed reaction to calculate.
 
That's good - we've been getting hammered in the Sac valley area again this week. There's a pedestrian bridge that goes across the American River I see on my commute that keeps going underwater. It's so weird.
 

NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
Bad weather the week of January 8th nearly ruined a Honeymoon trip for the wife and I in California. Figures we go to a state not known for rainfall and get hammered for nearly the whole week.
 

Tagyhag

Member
All this rain is welcome, but as the chart shows we're still in a drought here in socal so I hope people don't take this rain for granted and start wasting water again.

I also hope farmers start using better measures because we could be right back to square one by next year.
 

SpecX

Member
Great news, looking forward to the next storm system. Only issue I have is my grass is no longer dormant and is now growing again. Not sure how much longer I can go without cutting it and if the rain keeps coming like this, it's going to get muddy when I run the mower across there.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
All this rain is welcome, but as the chart shows we're still in a drought here in socal so I hope people don't take this rain for granted and start wasting water again.

I also hope farmers start using better measures because we could be right back to square one by next year.
You know non of thats gunna happpen right?

I got no faith in lots of people in this state. Especially golf course owners. Fuck those things.
 
I live 30 minutes north of Oroville and that dam is becoming an issue. We have been pounded by rain up here this week. Its clearing today until early next week when its supposed to rain again.
 

see5harp

Member
It is crazy to see just the amount of water flowing into the drains outside. It's glorious. One thing I do hate is seeing mosquitos so damn early in the year.
 
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