It's official, we are officially in a drought, again. I fear this is the way of the future. We have more or less been experiencing a series of long-term droughts inter-spliced with a few deluge years in between since the beginning of the 1970s. It’s either drought or flood. Not to mention wildfire. The idea of normal rainfall is a thing of the past I fear.
Northern California does substantially better with rainfall than Southern California. Especially the North Bay. After all, from Marin County north, we are part of the Pacific Northwest bioregion, though the Pacific Northwest folks would vehemently deny that. But biologically, and ecologically, as well as geographically speaking, we are all one large entity, sharing the same resources and weather patterns.
True, we are at the extreme southern end of the Pacific Northwest region. But when we do get rain, we get more rain than Seattle. The rest of California suffers much more from the lack of rain. So it comes as no surprise that we have entered extreme drought mode across the state—especially Southern California. But now it’s affecting the Southbay area and the central California coast as well. New victims of the drought.
I read in a recent article, "The coast of central and southern California, from San Luis Obispo County to the Mexican border, is in “severe drought,” with the state’s southeastern toe in “extreme drought.”
The contrast is stark as compared to last year at this time.
In mid-2017, on the heels of a drought-busting rainy season, the same report listed 76 percent of California — encompassing everything north of Monterey County — free of drought or abnormal dryness. Abnormally dry and moderate drought conditions were mostly limited to a coastal strip running south from San Luis Obispo County.
This year, the outlook is more varied, with the much of the Northern California coast and Sierra Nevada now categorized as abnormally dry. Wildland blazes have fed on those dry conditions, with more than 2,600 wildfires reported so far this year.
But reservoir levels remain much better off than in previous summers at this time. Ten of the state’s major reservoirs are holding nearly as much or more water than usual, with giant Lake Shasta at 79 percent full, equal to its historic average. Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, the reservoirs that serve more than 600,000 Sonoma and Marin residents, are 89 percent and 73 percent of targeted capacity, respectively.
Does this a drought make?
“This is definitely what you call a dry year statewide,” said Jeanine Jones, interstate resources manager for the California Department of Water Resources.
“We like to say one dry year is not a drought.”
The coast of central and southern California, from San Luis Obispo County to the Mexican border, is in “severe drought,” with the state’s southeastern toe in “extreme drought.”
The contrast is stark with last year at this time.
In mid-2017, on the heels of a drought-busting rainy season, the same report listed 76 percent of California — encompassing everything north of Monterey County — free of drought or abnormal dryness. Abnormally dry and moderate drought conditions were mostly limited to a coastal strip running south from San Luis Obispo County.
This year, the outlook is more varied, with the much of the Northern California coast and Sierra Nevada now categorized as abnormally dry. Wildland blazes have fed on those dry conditions, with more than 2,600 wildfires reported so far this year.
But reservoir levels remain much better off than in previous summers at this time. Ten of the state’s major reservoirs are holding nearly as much or more water than usual, with giant Lake Shasta at 79 percent full, equal to its historic average. Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, the reservoirs that serve more than 600,000 Sonoma and Marin residents, are 89 percent and 73 percent of targeted capacity, respectively. But don’t be fooled by that.
Does this a drought make?
The real problem is that we can never catch up to replace the ancient aquifers, the ground water, and central California keeps pumping all the water out for agribusiness. So we’ve been robbing the water bank for decades. and as a result, the Central Valley has sunk nearly 30 feet in the past two decades. This means those aquifers are ruined, and can never be replenished. This cannot end well.
“This is definitely what you call a dry year statewide,” said Jeanine Jones, interstate resources manager for the California Department of Water Resources.
“We like to say one dry year is not a drought.”
But the 2017-18 season was a comparative bust, with rainfall ranging from less than 30 percent in Southern California, to the 60 percent to 90 percent range in Northern California. Santa Rosa, with less than 25 inches of rain, was at 69 percent of normal; Ukiah at 63 percent."
Yep, it’s official, it’s a drought. Time to conserve water, Shower with a friend, save that gray water for the garden, use gray water in the toilet. Surely by now, you know the drill.
Most of my information was massaged and cribbed from this article: Drought conditions spread over much of California
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