A major study published today, based on 160 climate models compiled by researchers at NOAA, including a leading voice in climate modeling, Martin Hoerling, and Richard Seager, both of whom who have spent years projecting the impact of climate change on the West, concludes that California's epic three-year drought was not — repeat not — caused byContinue reading “Climate study surprise: warming to bring more rain to CA”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
The Wisdom of Melancholy: Alain de Botton
In 21st century America, melancholy seems passe, dated, all but forgotten. It's something that happens to people in Chekhov plays, or other countries. Everyone knows about depression, by contrast, and ten percent of Americans are taking anti-depressants, according to one study, and one in four middle-aged women. “It’s not only that physicians are prescribing more,Continue reading “The Wisdom of Melancholy: Alain de Botton”
CA’s drought worse in 1200 years — heat blamed
A lovely warm wet but mild Pacific storm has passed, leaving us soothed psychologically here in SoCal. The storm has done little to relieve our parching: millions of gallons flowed into the state's Oroville resevoir, but it only added up to about 1% capacity. Today comes this news, from a pair of paleoclimatologists: Griffin andContinue reading “CA’s drought worse in 1200 years — heat blamed”
Rain reaches Southern California: December 2014
Awoke to the sound of dripping. The liquid murmur of the rain. So missed! Images too — of precipitable water, for instance — offer beauty. (Motion displays best if clicked to embiggen.) That gif doesn't necessarily display well, but this depiction of the swirling moisture from an atmospheric river gives an idea — it's notContinue reading “Rain reaches Southern California: December 2014”
Why I didn’t ask for company on section e of the PCT
From what I had seen of the Antelope Valley, I feared it would look something like this: Which it did.
Joys and sorrows of section e of the PCT: November 2014
Every section of the Pacific Crest Trail has its joys and sorrows, its highpoints and its lowpoints, but section e, jeez. Not a lot of highlights, unless you count the industrial: Which I don't. Or unless you count camping by the Los Angeles Aqueduct, built back in the l920's by the famous/infamous William Mulholland/Noah Cross. Continue reading “Joys and sorrows of section e of the PCT: November 2014”
Maybe this will motivate people on climate change
From Tom Toles of course: No, Toles is not making up the news, though his timeline/headline is a bit off. Chocolate really will become more difficult to grow in some areas where it's taken for granted now, according to a study reported by Climatewire/Scientific American: Climate change could melt chocolate production.
The California drought: Will it rain this winter in SoCal?
It's a big question. Talk to anyone who works on the land in Southern California and you'll hear discussion of El Niño, rain, winter, drought, scientists who can't agree– and so on.
I set out to get to the bottom of it last month for the Ventura County Reporter, and (dare I say) succeeded as well as could be reasonably hoped. Not that the comments on the piece reflected that: any mention of cllimate change brings out the cranks, I guess. from the chemtrail people to the climate change deniers.
But the real news is that in the short-term, the consensus looks decent. We will have rain this winter, scientists agree.
What's troubling for SoCal is the long-term prediction — increased dryness. Yikes.
Here's the start: I'll put the kicker below the fold.
"The last 12 months (from September 2013 to September 2014) have been hotter than any other 12 months in the 113 years that reliable temperature records have been kept in California, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
The last three “water years” have also been the driest such period in the state’s history, NOAA says. The term U.S. geological Survey “water year” in reports that deal with surface-water supply is defined as the 12 month period for any given year through September 30 of the following year. As a result the entire state is in drought, and Ventura County — like all of the central coast of the state — is in category 5, or “exceptional drought,” the worst of all possibilities.
[here's an image drawn from data collected by the pair of satellites known as GRACE, which shows how California is drying out as the level of available water below ground sinks]
Section e of the Pacific Crest Trail: Worried Man
This past week I completed Section E of the Pacific Crest Trail, which goes for about 112 miles from Agua Dulce (north of Los Angeles) to an exit off Hwy 58 (north of Mojave). Man is it a tough section. Here's my fave picture. After hiking for approximately twelve miles with approximately 1-2 liters ofContinue reading “Section e of the Pacific Crest Trail: Worried Man”
Lucinda Williams Song Premiere: Hear a Cover of JJ Cale’s ‘Magnolia’ From Her New Double Album | Billboard
This is the last song on Lucinda Williams' pretty amazing double album released this summer (When the Spirit Meets the Bone). This one's a long, lovely, laid-out take of JJ Cale's classic "Magnolia." Play it all night Lucinda (and Bill Frissell, Tony Joe White, and….) Lucinda Williams Song Premiere: Hear a Cover of JJ Cale'sContinue reading “Lucinda Williams Song Premiere: Hear a Cover of JJ Cale’s ‘Magnolia’ From Her New Double Album | Billboard”
Kit Stolz 