Driest February on Record for Much of California
[Image from the State Drought Monitor]
For much of the state, this is the driest February on record. Some places of California were rain-free during this month–one of the traditionally wettest of the year. For instance, downtown San Francisco has had no precipitation at all during this period. This hasn’t happened since 1864. Ukiah was also bone dry this month.
Some of the potential impacts of this dry weather include
- Soil is dry; irrigation delivery begins early
- Dryland crop germination is stunted
- Winter resort visitation is low; snowpack is minimal
But, as had been seen already, one of the impacts of the dry weather is that fire season is beginning. Several larger fires have already been reported in the area. The Baseball Fire located in the moderate drought area in the northeastern part of Mendocino County and northwestern part of Glenn County had reached 68 acres yesterday. And, the Bear Fire, which was near Dinsmore in Humboldt County in mid February, was the largest fire in over a year in that county.
A high-pressure system has kept storms from pouring rain on California. In 2011 through 2015, a similar system sent California spinning into a drought conditions.
Compounding the problem, yesterday officials measuring the snowpack said it was about half of normal for this time of year.
Luckily, last year’s snowpack was one of the top five in recorded history so that provides a bit of leeway this year. And, the reservoirs are over 100% because of last year’s heavy snows and last fall’s rainfall which was within normal limits.
The next real possibility of precipitation for the Emerald Counties comes at the end of next week. But at this point even that is not predicted to be much or sustained for long.
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You would think the Garberville Sanitary District Board would have discuss this at their February 25, 2020 meeting, nope! All they wanted to talk about or what was on their agenda, was the Community Park water connection, rate increase, new projects, replacing their copier/printer, customers with private wells and how Cathy Randall’s operation is adversely effecting GSD’s raw water pumps, generator and electrical system, costing GSD allot of $$,$$$ and overtime.
Even though GSD is dependent on the South Fork Eel River flows, which is dependent on rain, you would think this was utmost on their minds, given the lack of rain for the whole month of February. The South Fork Eel flow is currently at 313 cfs or 140,484 gallons a minute, which is way below average. According to USGS, the average flow this time of year in the South Fork Eel at “11476500 SF EEL R NR MIRANDA CA” (Sylvandale bridge) is give or take approx 2000 cfs or 897,662 gallons a minute, about 8 times greater than right now. I guess GSD is worried more about a rate increase than it is about having water to sell at that new rate. Must be nice to be GSD…
Must be nice to be Ed Voice. I wish I had unlimited time to troll my enemies.
But you do Mike, its what you’re doing right now, you have the time to troll me every chance you get! Is this your way of defending GSD, by deflecting the facts? Seems there’s allot of that going around these days. And no, they are not my “enemies”, I have disagreements with how they use and abuse the South Fork Eel, you know, free speech, public discourse, you should try it…
San Francisco’s legendary year-round fog disappeared forever, and the media never blinked. It’s going to get much, much worse. I haven’t seen politicians or public officials, federal state or local, acknowledging the gigantic carnivorous elephant in the room whatsoever.
And don’t forget that there were droughts in California that lasted hundreds of years, back about thousand years ago. Anthropologists say it caused displacement and strife among the people who were living here.
According to studies of tree rings, the drought was characterized by five or six really dry years followed by one or two years of inundations of rain. Sound familiar?
“Dr. Stine, who reported his findings last month in the British journal Nature, says that California, like Tiwanaku, presents ‘a classic case of people building themselves beyond the carrying capacity of the land,’ which is determined not by wet times but by dry ones.” – From a New York Times article, July 19, 1994
Best thing to do, live near a big natural lake! Hmmmmm… Drought? What drought?
California: fires, floods, earthquakes, landslides, droughts and bums. Marijuana every damn where…
Also: High cost for insurance, real estate, taxes and everything else!
What was that the guy said about Oklahoma?
So here’s a thought, if we are so worried about climate change, shouldn’t we be building more dams for water storage instead of tearing them down?
Well, for starters, the short answer:
1. DAMS BLOCK RIVERS
Dams prevent fish migration. This limits their ability to access spawning habitat, seek out food resources, and escape predation. Fish passage structures can enable a percentage of fish to pass around a dam, but their effectiveness decreases depending on the species of fish and the number of dams fish have to traverse.
2. DAMS SLOW RIVERS
Aquatic organisms, including fish such as salmon and river herring, depend on steady flows to guide them.
Stagnant reservoir pools disorient migrating fish and can significantly increase the duration of their migration.
Dams can also alter the timing of flows. Some hydropower dams, for example, withhold and then release water to generate power for peak demand periods.
These irregular releases destroy natural seasonal flow variations that trigger natural growth and reproduction cycles in many species.
3. DAMS ALTER HABITAT
Dams change the way rivers function. They can trap sediment, burying rock riverbeds where fish spawn.
Gravel, logs, and other important food and habitat features can also become trapped behind dams. This negatively affects the creation and maintenance of more complex habitat (e.g., riffles, pools) downstream.
Dams that divert water for power and other uses also remove water needed for healthy in-stream ecosystems. Peaking power operations can cause dramatic changes in reservoir water levels. This can leave stretches below dams completely de-watered.
4. DAMS IMPACT WATER QUALITY
Slow-moving or still reservoirs can heat up, resulting in abnormal temperature fluctuations which can affect sensitive species. This can lead to algal blooms and decreased oxygen levels.
Other dams decrease temperatures by releasing cooled, oxygen-deprived water from the reservoir bottom.
Dams kill rivers
Drought is nothing new, the powers to be just never wanted to plan for it. The photo below is from the drought of 1977, Lake Mendocino
This photo was taken January 2014 of Lake Mendocino, same approx view as the 1977 photo above. Drought happens and dams do not…
Lake Mendocino, October 2013. The slope on the right is the lake side of Coyote Dam
Between drought like conditions and water diversion for a relatively new crop introduced to a previously forest area; it looks like a tough year for fish.
.99 inches in Rohnerville for February.