Intuitive fred888: Driest Winter in 500 Years: For parts of California

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Driest Winter in 500 Years: For parts of California

By now, we all know we’re enduring the driest winter in 500 years. It is not clear how long this drought will last, or how it will ultimately affect Santa Barbara County economically and socially. We do know we’re going to have to pursue some emergency measures, including bringing Santa Barbara’s currently mothballed desalinization plant online.
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The Water Crisis Is a Policy Crisis

Mostly I have lived in California since I was 4. I have also lived since I was 4 a little in Hawaii, New Mexico, and short times in Oregon and Washington. So, since 1952 I have mostly lived in California, and it is true the amount of rain in most parts of the state are lower than ever before for April and it has been this way pretty much for the last 1 1/2 to 3 years as well over most of the state.

So, it isn't just this year that is the problem it is more long term than that. So, here we are now for the most serious drought in 500 years in many areas. I wrote another article recently about how small towns like "Lake of the Woods" in California and other are running out of water already. Imagine how many small towns will run out of water one by one during the next few months.

There will be water battles and water policy battles like we have never seen before in California and it could get serious on multiple levels here because of this. The people most likely to wind up without ANY water piped in are the poorest people and the poorer communities and home owners. The richer people (in blocks or areas) likely will fare the best overall. Either because they can afford to erect water towers or to put 1200 gallon or bigger tanks on their property and hire water tanker drivers to haul water from nearby rivers or wells that they are allowed to draw water from or even from Desalinization water plants like Santa Barbara is starting to reopen and is presently accepting bids to do this.

For now, the area I live in is okay but they are already asking us to use 20% less water even now. My yard is green from recent rains but that is not enough rain to make up for not enough rain the past few years. So, though my yard is green now it is debatable whether it can be green in summer or fall. Many people like myself are already adopting "Yellow mellow Brown Down" standards for our bathrooms like in the 1970s bad droughts we went through then here in California. But, those droughts were not even 1/2 as bad as this one has been. So, California is going to change a lot this year and also the next if we don't get more rain soon.

This has all been brought to California through Global Climate Change. However, there is some hope that El Nino will arrive back this summer and fall which usually brings flooding to California.

And Flooding is actually preferable to Drought most places on earth because even if it takes the top soil you still have water to drink and to farm with. So, unless it is an extreme flood like the one in 1862 that made the state capital move from Sacramento (which was underwater for a few years) to San Francisco which has much more elevation) because it is sort of like a mountainous peninsula instead of being about 47 feet above sea level like Sacramento is. So, places like Sacramento and the whole Sacramento Valley always will be vulnerable to flooding and sea level rises and big storms from the ocean over time.

Great Flood of 1862 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1862‎

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