Heat
smothering California from north to south
LOS
ANGELES — A statewide heat wave was expected to east somewhat
Sunday, but forecasters predicted that many places in California will
still bake in higher than normal temperatures
-
Heat
smothering California from north to south
LOS
ANGELES — A statewide heat wave was expected to east somewhat
Sunday, but forecasters predicted that many places in California will
still bake in higher than normal temperatures
5
October, 2014
The
Sacramento and Los Angeles areas were expected to see temperatures in
the mid-90s again while the forecast for inland Southern California
was again in triple digits, the National Weather Service said.
More
significant drops in temperature were expected during the week.
The
usually temperate San Francisco Bay Area was even in the upper 90s in
several places Saturday.
Many
of the thousands who crammed Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for
the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival were chugging water and
dumping it on their heads as they danced to banjos and fiddles in the
midday swelter. The festival's final day Sunday will be 5 degrees
cooler, forecasters said.
Normally
closed for the season by now, the Raging Waters theme park in San
Dimas, where it reached 102 degrees Saturday afternoon, was open to
provide relief and recreation for another weekend.
In
San Jose, some sought icy refuge during the public skating hours of
at the Sharks' hockey practice facility.
"It's
so hot outside. We couldn't think of anything else to do except to
come to the ice rink where it's not 95 degrees," Clarissa
Harwell told KGO-TV.
Temperatures
also made rare trips into triple-digits on the Central Coast in San
Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz.
The
heat brought a red-flag warning of critical wildfire conditions, the
National Weather Service said.
The
U.S. Forest Service has implemented 24-hour firefighter staffing. The
Los Angeles County Fire Department has beefed up many of its
firefighting crews from three to four people and stationed extra
equipment in strategic locations.
The
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is urging people to set
thermostats at 78 degrees to avoid overtaxing the power grid and
bringing on outages.
It's
Official: California Just Entered 4th Year Of Severe Drought
In
California, the start of October brings an anniversary with little
cause for celebration.
3
October, 2014
The
state ended its third
driest year on record and
entered a fourth consecutive year of drought, as the U.S.
Geological Survey’s water calendar year came
to a close Wednesday. Amid a rare
autumn heat wave bringing
triple-digit temperatures to the state, officials are warning
Californians to prepare for the near certainty that the coming months
will do little to relieve the parched state.
Satellite
images provided to The Huffington Post by NASA’s Gravity Recovery
and Climate Experiment capture the state’s declining water storage.
"Day-to-day
conservation -- wise, sparing use of water -- is essential as we face
the possibility of a
fourth dry winter,”
Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin said in a press
release at the close of the water year.
It
would take 150
percent of the normal precipitation in
the new water year to pull the state out of drought, state
climatologist Mike Anderson told California media outlet KQED.
KQED
also reports that odds are in favor of only a “pipsqueak” El
Niño in the coming months, which experts say could bring no
rain at all.
While
relying tremendously on groundwater supplies has kept Californians
comfortable, the practice could come back to bite residents and
farmers as the drought ensues.
"That's
essentially borrowing
on tomorrow's future,”
Cowin told the Los Angeles Times. “We'll pay that price over
time."
5
October, 2014
The
Sacramento and Los Angeles areas were expected to see temperatures in
the mid-90s again while the forecast for inland Southern California
was again in triple digits, the National Weather Service said.
More
significant drops in temperature were expected during the week.
The
usually temperate San Francisco Bay Area was even in the upper 90s in
several places Saturday.
Many
of the thousands who crammed Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for
the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival were chugging water and
dumping it on their heads as they danced to banjos and fiddles in the
midday swelter. The festival's final day Sunday will be 5 degrees
cooler, forecasters said.
Normally
closed for the season by now, the Raging Waters theme park in San
Dimas, where it reached 102 degrees Saturday afternoon, was open to
provide relief and recreation for another weekend.
In
San Jose, some sought icy refuge during the public skating hours of
at the Sharks' hockey practice facility.
"It's
so hot outside. We couldn't think of anything else to do except to
come to the ice rink where it's not 95 degrees," Clarissa
Harwell told KGO-TV.
Temperatures
also made rare trips into triple-digits on the Central Coast in San
Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz.
The
heat brought a red-flag warning of critical wildfire conditions, the
National Weather Service said.
The
U.S. Forest Service has implemented 24-hour firefighter staffing. The
Los Angeles County Fire Department has beefed up many of its
firefighting crews from three to four people and stationed extra
equipment in strategic locations.
The
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is urging people to set
thermostats at 78 degrees to avoid overtaxing the power grid and
bringing on outages.
It
would take 150
percent of the normal precipitation in
the new water year to pull the state out of drought, state
climatologist Mike Anderson told California media outlet KQED.
KQED
also reports that odds are in favor of only a “pipsqueak” El
Niño in the coming months, which experts say could bring no
rain at all.
While
relying tremendously on groundwater supplies has kept Californians
comfortable, the practice could come back to bite residents and
farmers as the drought ensues.
"That's
essentially borrowing
on tomorrow's future,”
Cowin told the Los Angeles Times. “We'll pay that price over
time."
"Nobody Has Any Idea How Disastrous It's Going To Be" Warns California Water Expert
5
October, 2014
Newly
released images created from NASA satellite data illustrate the
staggering effect the California drought has had on groundwater
supply in the state. AsMashable's
Patrick Kulp explains,
the images show the amount
of water lost over the past 12 years,
with different colors indicating severity over time. “Nobody
has any idea how disastrous it’s going to be,” Mike
Wade of California Farm Water Coalition told the Associated Press, as
RT reports a
growing number of communities in central and northern California
could end up without water in 60 days due to the Golden state’s
prolonged drought. While California is bearing the brunt, experts
note"We're
seeing it happening all over the world, in most of the major aquifers
in the arid and semi-arid parts of the world."
California is currently experiencing the third year of one of the most severe short-term droughts ever recorded. Data from U.S. Drought Monitor shows that as of Sept. 30, 82% of the state is facing extreme or exceptional drought conditions.
But the state is not the only area being plagued by critical drops in groundwater reserves. Data collected by GRACE indicates that the supply of groundwater is in decline worldwide, especially in regions that rely on it most.
"We're seeing it happening all over the world. It's happening in most of the major aquifers in the arid and semi-arid parts of the worldwhere we rely on those aquifers. But we're able to see now the impact we're having on this over exploitation," Famiglietti told Science Magazine.
A growing number of communities in central and northern California could end up without water in 60 days due to the Golden state’s prolonged drought.
There are now a dozen of small communities in Central and Northern California relying on a single source of water – which has the water resources board concerned they will not have any at all in two months’ time.
At a mobile home park north of Oroville, more than 30 families are severely cutting back. The water supply is so tight it is shut off entirely between 10 pm and 5 am, according to CBS Sacramento. The families are relying on one well – all the others have dried up – and have to drive five miles to buy drinking water for themselves and their animals.
*
* *
In
conclusion...
“Nobody has any idea how disastrous it’s going to be,” Mike Wade of California Farm Water Coalition told the Associated Press.
Severe Weather Outlook Video
High heat will bake parts of the West again today while rain lingers in eastern New England. The next chance for severe thunderstorms will come in to the Tennessee Valley on Monday
Damaging hail and hurricane-force winds slam Texas
People in Dallas-Fort Worth metro area are cleaning up after severe weather. More than 180,000 people remain without power. Elizabeth Dinh of Dallas station KTVT reports from Arlington, Texas.
Too
bad the state is being destroyed from within
Internetwork Media
30
September, 2014
Louisiana
is disappearing. Since 1932, the Gulf of Mexico has swallowed 2,300
square miles of the state’s wetlands, an area larger than Delaware.
If no action is taken, the missing Delaware will become a missing
Connecticut, and then a missing Vermont. The loss of the marshes has
catastrophic implications, because they are the state’s first, and
strongest, defense against hurricanes.
Two
culprits are responsible for most of the destruction. The first is
the Army Corps of Engineers, which over the past 130 years has built
many of the levees that pin the modern Mississippi River in place to
prevent flooding. Without a restrained river, Louisiana would be
unsuitable for human civilization. But it was the flooding that built
and sustained much of the southern part of the state in the first
place. For millennia, whenever a breach opened in the riverbank,
muddy water rushed through, depositing alluvium that solidified into
land. When one crevasse plugged with mud, the river opened breaches
elsewhere. Since the Mississippi has been hemmed in, most of its
sediment, instead of replenishing the wetlands, discharges straight
into the Gulf of Mexico and disappears off the continental shelf.
The
other major destructive force in the region is the fossil fuel
industry. One-quarter of the nation’s energy supply passes through
southern Louisiana, and much of its infrastructure lies in
Plaquemines Parish. Over the last century, energy companies have
dredged thousands of miles of canals for tanker ships and pipelines.
The canals score the marsh, a defacement plainly visible from the
window of an airplane flying above. They are like straws sucking in
saltwater from the Gulf, eroding the fragile root systems that hold
the wetlands together like woven thread. As the Earth warms, and sea
levels rise, more saltwater intrudes, accelerating the deterioration.
Meanwhile,
coal terminals and oil refineries and gas storage facilities continue
to sprout along the lower Mississippi, belching out more emissions,
hastening the rise of the oceans, and coating Warren Lawrence’s
dream house in soot.
In
recent years, Louisiana has tried to have it both ways, restoring its
wetlands while encouraging energy development. In 2012, the state
published a Coastal Master Plan endorsed by scientists, state
representatives, and energy executives, which listed 109 projects
that should be undertaken in the next 50 years in order to offset the
depredations of the previous century. Of the 109 projects, one of the
most critical, and most ambitious, was called the Mid-Barataria
Sediment Diversion
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