California Sierra snowpack approaching 40 year record highs

[Moonbeam]

The longer the time water from rain snow or ice has to be absorbed by the land under it without excessive runoff, the greater the depletion of underground water lost due to drought conditions can be replenished. The coming warm rain that is predicted will work against that no matter how much of the runoff can be captured.

 

[Zorba]

The longer the time water from rain snow or ice has to be absorbed by the land under it without excessive runoff, the greater the depletion of underground water lost due to drought conditions can be replenished. The coming warm rain that is predicted will work against that no matter how much of the runoff can be captured.

Yeah, that is true. It'd be nice if we could figure out a way to help that absorption process. Injection could likely never happen at a high enough rate to make any difference.

 

[feralkid]

There are ways, like building detention/recharge basins and restoring wetlands, but things like that take residential and agricultural land off the market, so...yeah.

 

[Moonbeam]

Yeah, that is true. It'd be nice if we could figure out a way to help that absorption process. Injection could likely never happen at a high enough rate to make any difference.

My hope is that if as a species we can face the fact that we live our lives under an invisible, unconscious, sense of doom that the universe secretly hates us, the psychological truth of which is revealed, also unconsciously, in how quickly we pronounce on the advent of some bad experience, hoping to laugh it away but the confession, "This is just my luck." I was born in other words to have the cosmos fuck me, a new beginning will arise in the consciousness of every man that via the intelligence of which we are in evolutionary possession, a gift of unknown rarity and infinite value that very cosmos we so curse endowed us with, there is no reason, I believe to despair. If we were to ring the equator with solar farms bridging continents and oceans enough continuous energy could be produced, I think with little need of storage, that could provide electrical in mass abundance and at little cost. With enough desalinization of sea water almost as free as the sun shining on your skin, we could have enough water to keep every garden properly wet.

Oh no, nor again. Why does this song plague me?

I think I met the captain himself.

 

[BoomerD]

My hope is that if as a species we can face the fact that we live our lives under an invisible, unconscious, sense of doom that the universe secretly hates us, the psychological truth of which is revealed, also unconsciously, in how quickly we pronounce on the advent of some bad experience, hoping to laugh it away but the confession, "This is just my luck." I was born in other words to have the cosmos fuck me, a new beginning will arise in the consciousness of every man that via the intelligence of which we are in evolutionary possession, a gift of unknown rarity and infinite value that very cosmos we so curse endowed us with, there is no reason, I believe to despair. If we were to ring the equator with solar farms bridging continents and oceans enough continuous energy could be produced, I think with little need of storage, that could provide electrical in mass abundance and at little cost. With enough desalinization of sea water almost as free as the sun shining on your skin, we could have enough water to keep every garden properly wet.

Oh no, nor again. Why does this song plague me?

I think I met the captain himself.

Damn you, Moonie...now I got that crap stuck in my head...

 

[Moonbeam]

Damn you, Moonie...now I got that crap stuck in my head...

🙂

 

[Ajay]

Here ya go…

Map Viewer

Note that this is large fires only, 2017 -2021. The 2022 perimeters aren't available here yet.

For fire specific info for Google Earth, you can use the site below. For fire perimeters, select calif_n or calif_s, then CALFIRE or federal (yes, this is a pain), then year, fire name, date, IR, NIROPS, latest date, and then the .kmz file. Isn't that easy? 🙂

Index of /public/incident_specific_data

Lol, I wasn't getting notifications on this thread for some reason. Anyway - die you fiendish geologist 😛

 

[hal2kilo]

GD! It's snowing yet again. It's freaking March 9! Every 3rd day for the last 2 weeks. Hello! I was just looking out yesterday and thinking, so now that almost all of the snow is gone I will do my annual cleanup of Alder tree trash, which with all of the snow this year is going to be another big pile to burn. Hotter drier summers, more snows in the winter. And I need to go to the frigging store! to get some potatoes for my pot roast.
Sorry for the rant. This crap started in the middle of December!

 

[Jaskalas]

Yeah, that is true. It'd be nice if we could figure out a way to help that absorption process. Injection could likely never happen at a high enough rate to make any difference.

It's called building more reservoirs. Something Californians have long fought against. They need to capture and store a LOT more water than they currently do.

 

[BoomerD]

Not really, they have plans they follow. They do not release based on assumed future rain/moisture. Dams are designed to be able to outflow more than they will ever inflow. The limiting factor is always the downstream channel, and an attempt to balance flood storage vs downstream flooding. Oroville has a seasonal flood pool adjustment plus a normal flood pool, to allow it to be able to adsorb higher inflows than outflows. Once they run out of flood pool capacity, the lake becomes a pass through, where basically all inflow immediately outflows like a river.

Oroville happened because the spillway failed and they purposely stopped using the flood control spillway, until they realized the emergency spillway wasn't adequate.

California lowering dam water levels, warns of flood threat as storm hits

As yet another series of storms were forecast to hit California, state and federal officials outlined their preparations for flood control Thursday.

www.latimes.com

 

[BoomerD]

And here we go...Oroville releasing water in preparation for the upcoming storms and expected snowmelt to come.

Watch: Oroville Dam water released from main spillway for first time in 4 years

California officials released water from the main spillway at Oroville Dam Friday in the wake of recent storms and with snowmelt expected to swell lake levels later this year.

www.kcra.com

 

[Drach]

Gavin steps up to the plate to conserve some of the runoff.

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/03/10/g...floodwater-to-recharge-and-store-groundwater/

 

[Pens1566]

It's kind of lose-lose situation with retention/usage in the west (CA/AZ) though, right? You need additional surface area for more retention, but the ag business takes up too much already, and they're the real reason why usage is so high anyway.

 

[BoomerD]

It's kind of lose-lose situation with retention/usage in the west (CA/AZ) though, right? You need additional surface area for more retention, but the ag business takes up too much already, and they're the real reason why usage is so high anyway.

Where we were at in the Central Valley, big ag takes their water allotment, then pumps the shit out of the ground water...and sells as much as they can above their needs. Hell, even small almond farmers were doing that in the 80's and 90's when I was working in the biz.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Looks like a good day to stay in and watch The Shining.

Wow! The Perfect Movie for the situation. Little Danny, sitting with his Dad in front of the TV at the Overlook Hotel: "Dad? You'd never hurt me and Mom, would you?" Time to go explore room 237!

And -- your pandemic pantry: "Here we have canned peaches, canned carrots, canned pears, canned tomatoes . . . . canned prunes! Ya know, Mrs. Torrance! Ya gotta eat right to stay regular!"

Particularly memorable, the last scene, with Nicholson just sitting there, his eyes propped open with icicles . . . .

Recollecting, I am reminded at the moment to write a big note to Moms' Medicare hospice nurse: "Giant Poop on 3/10/23 -- please add this note to the log." She's had a slight bump in her metabolism, so they've thought it necessary to log the Logs . . .

We've got enough provisions in this house to open up our own Overlook! But down here in So-Cal at the lower elevations -- only rain. Good enough, though! At least I can get out and about for grocery purchases. Pity those poor devils up in Arrowhead and Big Bear.

 

[Moonbeam]

Damn you, Moonie...now I got that crap stuck in my head...

This may help:

Original versions of Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall written by Doris Fisher, Allan Roberts | SecondHandSongs

The song Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall was written by Doris Fisher and Allan Roberts and was first recorded and released by Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald in 1944. It was covered by Seventy Five Seven featuring Greetje Kauffeld, Thomas Fraser, The Hilltoppers featuring Jimmy Sacca, Rebecca...

secondhandsongs.com

 

[Moonbeam]

Yeah, that is true. It'd be nice if we could figure out a way to help that absorption process. Injection could likely never happen at a high enough rate to make any difference.

Just saw this:

Google News

Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, aggregated from sources all over the world by Google News.

news.google.com

 

[Zorba]

California lowering dam water levels, warns of flood threat as storm hits

As yet another series of storms were forecast to hit California, state and federal officials outlined their preparations for flood control Thursday.

www.latimes.com

That's interesting, the Corp doesn't work off predicted future rainfall. Snow pack is different though, that is already stored moisture. The Corp does react to moisture that has fallen, but not gotten to the reservoir yet. I'm guessing they are doing this because they know there is enough snow to refill the reservoirs.

 

[Ajay]

Where we were at in the Central Valley, big ag takes their water allotment, then pumps the shit out of the ground water...and sells as much as they can above their needs. Hell, even small almond farmers were doing that in the 80's and 90's when I was working in the biz.

That hardly sounds stupid at all 🙄.

 

[BoomerD]

That hardly sounds stupid at all 🙄.

The part of all that which has pissed me off is that a fuckton of that water is controlled by Stuart Reznick...

Kalifornien: Wasser und Macht (2017) ⭐ 7.3 | Documentary

1h 27m | PG

m.imdb.com

That movie is a real eye opener for anyone dealing with the California water problems.

 

[Ajay]

The part of all that which has pissed me off is that a fuckton of that water is controlled by Stuart Reznick...

Kalifornien: Wasser und Macht (2017) ⭐ 7.3 | Documentary

1h 27m | PG

m.imdb.com

That movie is a real eye opener for anyone dealing with the California water problems.

I did watch a Frontline special on the California water problems. Reznick was featured in that episode - typical billionaire; I bought those rights legally.
One thing that kills me, is the perpetual water rights based on claims made a century ago (or more). That and the fact that the purchase of such claims preserve that same perpetuity.
That kills any efforts for counties or the state to find ways to conserve water or redistribute that water in any meaningful way.

 

[woolfe9998]

I can honestly say that I can't recall a single day that it hasn't rained here in the Bay Area since early December. Maybe there was a day in there and I forgot about it. Today I looked up at a blue sky with practically no clouds, and it was still raining...

They're calling it "atmospheric rivers." Never heard the term til now.

A new atmospheric river slams flood-ravaged California, threatening landslides and forcing more residents to flee | CNN

Another atmospheric river is walloping storm-ravaged California, inundating cities already flooded by recent rain and forcing residents to flee -- or risk not getting help if they need it.

www.cnn.com

This is easily the most rainfall in 40+ years. There's a reason we are suddenly experiencing such extreme weather. Dry brush igniting in flames over the summer, torrential rains in the winter, one year out of four.

Hoping the lightbulb will finally come on for some people.

 

[BoomerD]

I can honestly say that I can't recall a single day that it hasn't rained here in the Bay Area since early December. Maybe there was a day in there and I forgot about it. Today I looked up at a blue sky with practically no clouds, and it was still raining...

They're calling it "atmospheric rivers." Never heard the term til now.

A new atmospheric river slams flood-ravaged California, threatening landslides and forcing more residents to flee | CNN

Another atmospheric river is walloping storm-ravaged California, inundating cities already flooded by recent rain and forcing residents to flee -- or risk not getting help if they need it.

www.cnn.com

This is easily the most rainfall in 40+ years. There's a reason we are suddenly experiencing such extreme weather. Dry brush igniting in flames over the summer, torrential rains in the winter, one year out of four.

Hoping the lightbulb will finally come on for some people.

For a long time, the "atmospheric rivers" were more commonly known as "the Pineapple Express" because the moisture came from the region around Hawaii. Heavy, warm moisture...that dropped copious amounts of rain.

 

[Jaskalas]

For a long time, the "atmospheric rivers" were more commonly known as "the Pineapple Express" because the moisture came from the region around Hawaii. Heavy, warm moisture...that dropped copious amounts of rain.

Predates the internet. When they finally got together some research, it allowed them to discover many such weather patterns occurring across the globe, a more formal term "Atmospheric River" was coined. To the lay speaking out there, it means "You gonna get slammed".

This winter was highly unusual. Third La Nina in a row, and the lower great lakes region here, literally only two weeks felt like winter. Rest of this winter was either mild or extremely warm. Comparable to 2020, maybe exceeds it. Very different causes between the two years. I hope someday they do the research on it and point out the correlating weather patterns that set this up. Wasn't just La Nina, something else happened along side of it.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well, it's still coming down here in Riverside, CA. It's been raining all day, and now through the night. I'm fine with it down here in So-Cal, but those poor devils north of here, and even in the San Gabriels, will have more than just comfortable precipitation.