California floods during worst drought in 1,200 years

[ErikJ]

Source: USA Today

While a Pineapple Express storm delivered much-needed rain and snow to California this week, the state is still struggling with persistent drought that's left reservoirs well below normal and farmers hoping things change -- soon.

A new study says the drought is the worst California has seen in 1,200 years, and this week's moisture may have only been "two drops" in the bucket, meteorologist Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services said.

Getting out of the drought will be a long, uphill battle, he added. Over the past three rainy seasons (2011-12, 2012-13, and 2013-14) in San Francisco, for example, Null said the city has been a whopping two feet short of its typical rainfall.


"The bottom line is we need to make up at least some of the deficit from the past three years," he said. "It's not enough to just pay off this year's credit card debt, you have to at least pay down some of the previous debt!"

"We have to be patient in measuring improvement….more on the scale of months, not weeks or events," said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center. "This recent wet pattern needs to continue and sustain itself over the coming months in order to really begin eroding away at those 3-year deficits," he said
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Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2014/12/04/california-drought-update/19907867/

[niyad]

1. k and r

[Faux pas]

2. I grew up on SoCal

and lived there most of my life. It's always been drought, fire then flood. In between we had earthquakes. So glad I finally escaped!

[cosmicone]

7. I'd take the drought and earthquakes

over hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards any day.

[calimary]

13. Yeah. Me too.

[seveneyes]

19. hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards all have some advance notice

Sleeping on the first floor of a collapsing building without warning holds little comfort for most.

[Faux pas]

22. If you live there long enough

you'll notice that there is such a thing as earthquake weather.

[mnhtnbb]

17. We left in 1988 and never looked back.

You couldn't pay me to live in CA again--especially SoCal.

[Faux pas]

21. You got out a lot sooner than I did, comgrats.

I don't even wanna go back to visit friends and family. Sad.

[mnhtnbb]

26. It is sad. I had a Dem aunt/uncle

in Pasadena that we frequently returned to visit. They have now both passed on.
I do have a Republican brother in California--and I refuse to visit him.
Two of his kids live there, but I won't go to visit them, even though they aren't hard core Repubs the
way he is.

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. but when the weather is good, it's GOOD, which is most of the time

[Journeyman]

3. And even if we do get back the water we've lost, we need to stay on permanent drought alert. . .

The one truly idiotic thing Gov Brown has done in his most recent term was to declare the drought over in 2011. Oh, he cautioned everyone to continue to conserve, but that's not the way people work. Once the word spread, many went back to previous wasteful behavior. We need to recognize that the whole southwest region has been in a state of continual drought for 40 years, and that no matter how much rain and snow we may get, there'll never be enough water for the needs of all the people who are here.

[shanti]

6. It has changed some peoples'

ideas on landscaping. Lots of tree cutting here and xeriscaping going on.

[jwirr]

4. This is sad because too much of that rain they got is not soaking in but running off.

[itsrobert]

11. Actually it was a steady light to moderate rain over 3 days

not a downpour. A lot did get soaked into the ground around here.

[jwirr]

12. That is good to know. The idea of a flood is what made me think otherwise.

[shanti]

5. 1200 years??

We need several more of the pounding rainstorms in the last few days to make a dent though.

[Brother Buzz]

16. Only 764 years!!

Evidence is suggesting a megadrought started about 1250 AD..... but lasted 220 Year!


Very interesting story uncovered by some genuine sleuthing

http://scrippsscholars.ucsd.edu/ndriscoll/content/duration-and-severity-medieval-drought-lake-tahoe-basin

[nichomachus]

8. This isn't a drought

Calling it a drought implies that it's a cyclical event that will resolve itself over time.

This is climate change -- and it's permanent. It's only going to get worse. People who talk about recovering from it are in serious denial. They're already predicting that Las Vegas will be completely out of water by 2020.

[olddad56]

9. I think that this current drought cycle is beginning to end.

I have seen the reservoirs in Northern Ca., specifically, Shasta, Oroville and Folsom fill in one winter in 1986 and we were in a drought prior to that. What is permanent due to climate change is extreme weather swings that will become increasingly more violent. Just my opinion, we shall see.

[padfun]

10. Also, global warming means more water in the air through evaporation

which explains the record snow fall in Buffalo a few weeks ago. The problem is it doesn't always fall where you want it to.

[olddad56]

14. I don't thing anything related to the weather is going to go the way we want it to, in the long run.

even if congress passes a bill prohibiting climate change.

[Xolodno]

15. Don't give Republicans any ideas....

...they just might do that.

And I swear, many will use the argument "There isn't any climate change...."Congress outlawed it!!!"

[shanti]

18. norcal in 1986

wasn't that the year of the flood? I lived in Marysville when it flooded.

[olddad56]

23. yes, that was the year that the levee broke and flooded the mall across the river from Marysville.

Oilvehurst and Linda flooded.

[shanti]

24. oh yes

i will always remember that! the beginning of the end of that mall too. i was going to yuba college at the time, and was unable to get there due to the floods. i was on the unflooded east side of it. it was a scary time!

[seveneyes]

20. Nothing is permanent

And nothing does not exist. Have you pondered infinity lately? There is nothing bigger or smaller than infinity. Not even Planck.

[jakeXT]

25. Reminds me of Lawrence Krauss

[olddots]

28. I live in the San Delameo Valley

Why ????? ????????