It's crazy how warm the Pacific is these days. Yet another story from the hard-working Chris Mooney at the Washington Post points to "the blob" of warmth in the Pacific off California. Here's a map of sea surface temperature anomalies that gives an idea of that blob: It's been extraordinarily warm in the Pacific, and inContinue reading “PDO turns positive: what does this mean for West Coast?”
Tag Archives: California
Ventura County: Highest pesticide use in California
Spectacular story for The Food and Environment Network, published in The Nation, by Liza Gross. For Ventura County and Oxnard, here's the nut of it: Use of many of these sixty-six pesticides has fallen statewide since 2007. But a handful of communities saw a dramatic increase. By 2012, the most recent year for which dataContinue reading “Ventura County: Highest pesticide use in California”
California vs. the megadrought
Disasters by their nature are enormously loud, chaotic, disruptive events. Think the scream of hurricane winds, the crashing of boulders in floods, the phenomenal roar of a huge wildfire. Drought is different. Drought stays quiet. Its powers cannot be seen directly, save in the unblinking glare of the sun. Drought lacks drama. Yet — as oneContinue reading “California vs. the megadrought”
A Cubist from California (with wit)
At the Museum of Modern Art is an exhibit of modern abstract painters, the first since an epochal show from l958. It's called The Forever Now. The title hints at the problem facing the painters in the show: what can be painted that hasn't been painted before? Or, as Peter Schdjeldahl puts it in TheContinue reading “A Cubist from California (with wit)”
Uh-oh CA: Ridiculously Resilient Ridge is back
Despite a couple of mild rains, we haven't seen any sizeable precipitation in some time. Craig Miller of KQED in San Francisco explains why: You might’ve noticed a conspicuous absence lately: rain. In fact, with a scant few days remaining in the month, much of Northern California is on track for a record-dry January. TheContinue reading “Uh-oh CA: Ridiculously Resilient Ridge is back”
Atmospheric River to hit Bay Area, maybe SoCal
Eric Holthaus, a journalist/meteorologist for Slate, fills us in on the good news of an atmospheric river hitting California this week. This week’s storm will usher in an atmospheric river event, also known as the “pineapple express,” peaking late Wednesday and Thursday. The National Weather Service office in the Bay Area has predicted “the strongest stormContinue reading “Atmospheric River to hit Bay Area, maybe SoCal”
Climate study surprise: warming to bring more rain to CA
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”
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]
Okay, now the California drought is getting serious
From PostSecret a three or four months or so ago: Water use actually has fallen over 10% this summer in SoCal.
El Niño 2014 October forecast: Glass little over half full
NOAA released its October outlook for our winter, based on ocean temperatures, and continues to find a 60-65% chance of the appearance of the boychick. Here's my fave set of graphs today, from another site, and here's my fave single graph: These are tempeartures taken across a section of the equatorial Pacific, the vast belt acrossContinue reading “El Niño 2014 October forecast: Glass little over half full”
Kit Stolz 