It's a Drought Year. Again.
It's another drought year here in California. The state has had below average rainfall for, I believe, 7 of the last 9 years. How bad is it this year? For one, a quick web search on terms like "California drought" turns up articles from numerous agencies and media channels over the past week or two. Among them is this photo essay at The Guardian, which helps you visualize how bad the situation is. The governor gives a news conference from a lake bed that's normally 40 feet underwater, and the often close-to-the-water Enterprise Bridge at Lake Oroville looks like it's crossing a desert canyon. The look is similar to my own comparison of Lake Oroville/Enterprise Bridge levels I posted years ago.
Here's chart of the current drought severity:
This data from the US Drought Monitor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln shows that all of California is in at least moderate drought and almost 95% is in severe or worse drought.
How did we get here? In three words, lack of rain. A quick perusal of figures compiled by Golden Gate Weather Services (per 31 May 2021 update) shows most of the state got between 40-60% of its normal annual rainfall. This doesn't come as a surprise to me, personally, because I've noted the lack of rainfall many times and have blogged about it occasionally. For example: Dry weather in December, rain in January, none in February and only a bit in March before turning dry again. The fact that droughts have occurred most of the past 10 years is why I pay attention to these things. Understand, it doesn't take zero percent rain to cause a drought; just 50% causes extreme conditions as lakes bottom out, rivers run dry, and tens of millions of people have to figure out how to do with less.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/67215.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
Here's chart of the current drought severity:
This data from the US Drought Monitor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln shows that all of California is in at least moderate drought and almost 95% is in severe or worse drought.
How did we get here? In three words, lack of rain. A quick perusal of figures compiled by Golden Gate Weather Services (per 31 May 2021 update) shows most of the state got between 40-60% of its normal annual rainfall. This doesn't come as a surprise to me, personally, because I've noted the lack of rainfall many times and have blogged about it occasionally. For example: Dry weather in December, rain in January, none in February and only a bit in March before turning dry again. The fact that droughts have occurred most of the past 10 years is why I pay attention to these things. Understand, it doesn't take zero percent rain to cause a drought; just 50% causes extreme conditions as lakes bottom out, rivers run dry, and tens of millions of people have to figure out how to do with less.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/67215.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]