CA Can Expect Snowpack Loss By 2050 Equivalent To Lake Shasta Capacity

[hatrack]

As global warming continues and California's mountain snowpack decreases, the state can expect to see a drastic drop in its drinking and farm water supplies, as well as more frequent winter flooding. hese are among the findings in a report released Monday by the state Department of Water Resources. The report was commissioned in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order last year for state agencies to begin preparing for an altered climate. The result, a 338-page study, offers the most detailed look yet at how climate change could affect California water supplies.

Under each of four climate-change scenarios examined in the report, warmer temperatures raise the snow level in California mountains, producing a smaller snowpack and more winter runoff. This means more floodwaters to manage in winter, followed by less snowmelt to bank in reservoirs for drinking water, summer lawns and crop irrigation.

The average difference by 2050, according to the report, would be a snowpack statewide that holds 5 million acre-feet less water. That's more than the total capacity of Lake Shasta, the state's largest reservoir.

Average deliveries to cities and farms from state and federal water systems could shrink by more than 10 percent, according to the report. "A 10 percent decrease in deliveries is significant to our water users," said Kathy Kelly, chief of DWR's Bay-Delta branch, which oversaw the report. "I think it says we need to be paying attention and we need to start incorporating this into our strategic plans for managing California's water resources."

EDIT

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14276733p-15086051c.html

[XemaSab]

1. F*** summer lawns!

Go drought tolerant!

[pberq]

2. Kick - we need to wake up to the reality of global warming

[amandabeech]

3. Does anyone have any estimates of the number of people

expected to reside in California in 2050? I would imagine double at least.

There will be considerable, ah, "readjustment", in California vis a vis water supply and lifestyle. I'm not sure how the populace will take that together with much, much, much less petroleum.

[NNadir]

4. I think that any prediction about how many people might live in any place

are dubious.

California as very dependent on its energy intensive infrastructure, a vast system of networks. There is going to be some major disruption. Many people, I'm sure will feel compelled to leave, or worse, become refugees of the type we saw in New Orleans last summer.