EXTREME CLIMATIC EVENTS
WORSENING DROUGHT
V. LOW SNOWPACK WATER CONTENT
WATER FAMINE
CROP DISASTERS
STATE OF EMERGENCY
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Third of California water comes from snowpack
Snowpack provides about a third of the water used by California’s cities and farms. As of April 15, 2014, the California statewide water content of snowpack stood at only 24% of normal, according to the Department of Water Resource.
Drought causes water famine leading to crop disasters. It degrades water quality, and leads to surface and groundwater level declines, land subsidence, soil erosion, intense wildfires, humongous dust storms, and spread of disease.
Snow Water Equivalents
Statewide Summary
Provided by the California Cooperative Snow Surveys
Average snow water equivalent: 6.4″
Percent of April 1 average: 23%
Percent of normal for this date: 24%
Drought Information
Water years 2012 and 2013 were dry statewide, especially in parts of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Water year 2014 continues this trend.
California’s Water Year 2014 (October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014) has been one of the driest in decades and follows two consecutive dry years throughout the state. In most years, California receives about half of its precipitation in the months of December, January and February, with much of that precipitation falling as snow in the Sierras. Only a handful of large winter storms can make the difference between a wet year and a dry one.
In normal years, the snowpack stores water during the winter months and releases it through melting in the spring and summer to replenish rivers and reservoirs. However, relatively dry weather conditions this year have reduced the amount of snowpack in California’s mountains. Each of this season’s first four snow surveys – conducted in early January, late January, late February and early April – found a statewide snowpack water equivalent (WEQ) far below average for the dates of the surveys. —Calif. DoWR
State of Emergency
Governor Brown proclaimed a State of Emergency on January 27 amid the worsening statewide drought. He called the “really serious,” adding that 2014 could be California’s third consecutive dry year. “In many ways it’s a mega-drought.”
California State Resources
- Electronic snowpack readings – http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/snowapp/sweq.action
- 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/
FIRE-EARTH 2009 Forecast: Desertification of California in the Near Future Is Almost a Certainty
[NOTE: The above forecast and most of the links posted below have previously been filtered/censored by Google, WordPress and others. Editor]
Related Links
- U.S. Drought Conditions Continue to Worsen March 28, 2014
- California Drought Continues to Intensify March 20, 2014
- Crop Disasters Declared for Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho March 21, 2014
- Drought
- Agricultural Disasters Index
Fire Earth 