Maybe it will rebound back quickly? We were really suffering in Texas in 2011 thinking it'd never end then lots of rainfall came...

Ark, all you need to tell you how bad the drought is in Cali, is a trip to your local fruit market! Prices are skyrocketing for Cali produce.

Lucky here, no drought, but rainfall patterns are definitely extremely different than years ago. New precipitation pattern is 'flash' drought cycling with big rain events (and because rainfall in the East is not seasonal as in Cali., it can fall in Summer or Winter). Overall though, rainfall is above normal. If we get an El Niño Winter, they may get more than they ever prayed for!

This post was edited by njoasis on Thu, Sep 4, 14 at 17:07

I'm surprised the trees are still green in those pics.

CA native trees are adapted to no summer rainfall - even a wet year sees virtually no rain in the summer months.

It's the winter (as in bottom pic) that is the problem.

What bothers me is, if we have the type of El Nino that helps CA, it gives us a warm, dry winter, that usually leads to a summer drought in the East the following summer.

It's like you can't win for losing.

isnt this what happens.. when you try to populate a pre-existing desert ... with millions of people???

ken

CA still has lakes. In west TX the lakes are dry, not down. Lake Meredith is shut down. A nearby lake is at 0.016% capacity. Really, just admit that it's dry.

fruit,
Don't believe anyone said that there wasn't drought in Texas. Just because the Lakes aren't completely dry does not mean there is no drought. Don't believe I have run across a similar series of pics for Texas lakes, though I am well aware of just how low some of them are. If you have a similar series of pics for you area, post them. Nobody is passing off the Texas, and yes OTHER places BESIDES Texas drought as meaningless. And just because you are convinced your drought is worse, does not change the importance of the California drought. There has been more than enough drought to go around the last 5-10 years.

Ken, there is some validity to your statement in that many of the heaviest populated areas are what I would consider dessert. But note from the series of pics the amount of natural tree cover, and the lack of snow in the mountains where it is NOT dessert. BTW the comparison pic of 2013 was hardly a heavy precipitation year for the wet season, which makes the comparison to the same date in 2014 that much more impressive.

Arktrees

This post was edited by arktrees on Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 16:38

Ark,

Yup, we are still in a drought in this part of Texas. http://travis.uslakes.info/Level.asp That's the lake I live close by. You can see that during 2011, the water level dropped enormously. Just plain lucky that it was a full lake to begin with. It just has not rained heavily enough to fill it up completely for a while. What sucked the most is that they have to release enormous amount of water downstream to rice farms if the water level is at certain level where they by contract have to automatically release all that much water and we're back to watering restriction soon after when it stops raining. It sucks.

Seems like the california drought has come to an end now?

Seems like the california drought has come to an end now?

Not even close!! A few inches of rainfall is not sufficient to end a three year long dry period. Most areas of CA are substantially below "normal" rainfall totals for this time of year........like more than 20-25 inches.

Most of CA would need to receive near record-breaking rainfall totals between now and next spring to come close to emerging from this drought. It's not gonna go away easily and we will see the effects at the grocery store for a long time to come.

Not been here much lately, have had other things in my life to keep me busy, but did happen to see this.

See link below. Major reservoirs range from 7% to 37% capacity (see link below). So the drought has in no way ended, nor substantially improved at this point. Even though it was a fairly healthy system, it was really not allot more than an average winter storm, and most of the precipitation totals weren't that large.

Still PLENTY of drought to go around in the west, and the south. Hopefully the storm track will stay in a beneficial configuration, at least for some.

Arktrees

Here is a link that might be useful: California reservoirs

Sometimes I like browsing through Science Daily, article just came out yesterday that said this could be California's worst drought in the past 1200 years. They studied tree ring records in the Blue Oak tree.

Not that California hasn't had other decade long droughts in the past millennium, but I think it's saying that the combination of record high temperatures and low rainfall that makes this one particularly bad.

Also says that anthropogenic activity is a factor -

With an exceptionally wet winter, parts of California might emerge from the drought this year. "But there is no doubt," cautions Anchukaitis, "that we are entering a new era where human-wrought changes to the climate system will become important for determining the severity of droughts and their consequences for coupled human and natural systems."

Here is a link that might be useful: California's drought is the worst in 1,200 years, evidence suggests

This post was edited by terrene on Sat, Dec 6, 14 at 10:46

I don't know about California (the West in general), or the South, but local weather has certainly become much more dynamic/dramatic. Rain (and snow for that matter), have tended toward the extreme in recent years. Currently, in a very wet and relatively mild period, but it was like that last year before one of the worst winters ever. Winter rains seem heavier, summers seem more inclined to sudden flashes of aridity (but not extreme). Overall, seems wetter but the distribution of precipitation events more extreme. In fact the year Irene passed through, featured just over 80 inches of annual rainfall (which is on par with tropical regions). I know the West in general is supposed to be drying out, but wonder if the so-called Pineapple express (tropical plume of moisture off the tropical Pacific), might also become more active in the future and help Cali out more eventually. Time will tell, but it does seem weather (and climate) will be staying in the news! Stay tuned.

Terrene, more like this is Cal's worst drought since 1976-77 -- below.

Here is a link that might be useful: california-droughts-then-and-now

In this county we are now at normal (average) rainfall YTD, which is measured from July 1-June 30, roughly 9". Another heavy storm is predicted for the end of this week. We can't celebrate the end of the drought, that's for sure, but we are in better shape than we've been for quite a while.

This post was edited by formandfoliage on Mon, Dec 8, 14 at 11:22

The area runs from what we now call California to Texas has always been in either drought or rainy periods, The Indians that lived in the area came and went as the rains came and went for thousands of years. Populations were relatively small during the same period.

The problem has been made worse because these areas of desert are now trying to support millions of people. Southern California has taken all the water that use to be the Colorado river. It actually use to flow to the sea.

Eventually the populations of those areas will have to be restricted, or all of the water will have to be taken from the sea. We can not let the populations suck up all of the water from the western slopes of the mountains.

I have a feeling that agriculture is an even bigger drain on the Colorado than residential use. Some re-evaluation is in order, that is certain.

Wish I had the link, but soundings & underwater examinations of Lake Tahoe have shown ~1000 yr old tree stumps nearly 100' below the current water level. Now that's a drought.

formandfoliage, again no link, but the agricultural water use in Cal is much greater than all the other uses including residential. Can't remember exactly, but something like 70%.

Yeah beng I had a feeling that was so, just from looking at what goes on around here. And of course, we need to eat. But maybe some changes need to be made to farming practices, livestock maybe shouldn't be raised in water-scarce areas, etc. As someone noted above, this will raise food prices.

With the lakes and reservoirs at record low levels, all kinds of 'lost' things are turning up: cars, bodies, crime evidence, etc.

It's been nearly twenty years since I noticed a distinct change in our local weather patterns. I've been involved in an agricultural trade for quarter of a century, and dependent on my own water system, and the whims of nature where energy for environmental control is concerned. It impacted the success of a season and my profit margins. First I noticed the increased electrical displays in storms, then I noticed now the hot nights of summer were no more. I am still waiting for the water level to improve here and thankfully it is. Nearly daily rains are misleading to anyone other than farmers or gardening nerds. It has been months since the inch of overnight rain we got last week happened. Fractions of an inch daily simply kept the hounds at bay. Whether global climate change is man made or not is a moot point to me, because I know that more locally induced situations are.......and I think parties on both sides need to keep an open mind and begin to address it in those areas where we can have some impact. We are using our subterranean aquifers faster than they're being recharged. We have centralized our agricultural production for profit motives and not necessity. Even the current trend for 'garden tubs for soaking or a bathroom for each bedroom' in the housing market makes me cringe when the simplest measures like conservation aren't encouraged. We are just gonna have to buckle up for the ride, because whether it's anthropogenic or not we need to start addressing it and being more proactive about water's availability, use and distribution.

Guessing you are from the Midwest, calliope. Here, the normal summer thunderstorms seem to have become much rarer, but abnormal warmth, particularly at night, has increased. It's all,
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION as they say.

Njoasis,

warmer night has to do with urban heat island effect. The larger the city is, the worse it gets. Also large scale farming will have that effect as well like in the desert where they get cold nights but have warmed up at night significantly with wide scale farming because of increased water vapor from the irrigation.