Exceptional Drought Grows in California
Posted by feww on July 31, 2014
EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC EVENTS
RISING TEMPERATURES
EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT
CROP DISASTERS
DESTRUCTIVE WILDFIRES
MULTIPLE STATES OF EMERGENCY
MAIN SCENARIOS 900, 800, 555, 444, 123, 111, 101, 100, 033, 011, 08, 04, 03, 02
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Golden State Turns Dark Brown
Exceptional Drought spreads to 58.41 percent of California, up from 36.49 percent last week, according to the latest data release by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The entire land area in the Golden State is experiencing ‘Severe’ to Exceptional drought, according to U.S. Drought Monitor.
Source: US Drought Monitor, data released July 31, 2014.
National Drought Summary for July 29, 2014: State of California
Increasingly, drought indicators point to the fact that conditions are not appreciably better in northern California than in central and southern sections of the state. In addition, mounting evidence from reservoir levels, river gauges, ground water observations, and socio-economic impacts warrant a further expansion of exceptional drought (D4) into northern California. For California’s 154 intrastate reservoirs, storage at the end of June stood at 60% of the historical average. Although this is not a record for this time of year—the standard remains 41% of average on June 30, 1977—storage has fallen to 17.3 million acre-feet. As a result, California is short more than one year’s worth of reservoir water, or 11.6 million acre-feet, for this time of year. The historical average warm-season drawdown of California’s 154 reservoirs totals 8.2 million acre-feet, but usage during the first 2 years of the drought, in 2012 and 2013, averaged 11.5 million acre-feet.
Given the 3-year duration of the drought, California’s topsoil moisture (80% very short to short) and subsoil moisture (85%) reserves are nearly depleted. The state’s rangeland and pastures were rated 70% very poor to poor on July 27. USDA reported that “range and non-irrigated pasture conditions continued to deteriorate” and that “supplemental feeding of hay and nutrients continued as range quality declined.” In recent days, new wildfires have collectively charred several thousand acres of vegetation in northern and central California. The destructive Sand fire, north of Plymouth, California—now largely contained—burned more than 4,000 acres and consumed 66 structures, including 19 residences. [ U.S. Drought Monitor]
California experiences record warmest winter and spring
Meanwhile, the most populous U.S. state saw its warmest winter and spring on record this year, with the temperatures rising 2.8ºC (5 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal during the first six months of 2014, about 0.6ºC (1 degree F) warmer than the previous record, increasing the threat of water famine, crop disasters and wildfires even further.
FIRE-EARTH 2009 Forecast: Desertification of California in the Near Future Is Almost a Certainty – with the critical phase occurring by as early as 2011.
[NOTE: The above forecast and most of the links posted below have previously been filtered/censored by Google, WordPress and rest of the Internet Mafia. Editor]
- California: Biggest Desert in N America August 16, 2009
- Warning: California Is Being Mojavefied! January 30, 2009
California State Resources
- Electronic reservoir readings – http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.action
- Water Conditions – http://www.water.ca.gov/waterconditions/
- California Drought Page – http://www.water.ca.gov/waterconditions/drought/
California Drought Disasters
- Extreme Drought Spreads in California July 25, 2014
- Drought Spells More Crop Disasters for Five States May 22, 2014
- Southern Sierra Loses Snow Cover May 27, 2014
- California’s Snow Story: Going, Going … May 21, 2014
- Severe – Exceptional Drought Plague 100% of California May 16, 2014
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