The driest start to the calendar year in recorded history is
taking a toll on water resources during California’s third
year of drought. Find resources to stay up-to-date with the
latest on drought.
Some people in California and across the West struggle to access
safe, reliable and affordable water to meet their everyday needs
for drinking, cooking and sanitation.
If you work for a state, federal or private employer, you
can ehlp support water education in California and across the
West with easy paycheck deductions.
Here’s a sweet deal for the holidays
that won’t last long: Get our paperback “Water & the
Shaping of California,” a treasure trove of gorgeous
color photos, historic maps, water literature and famous sayings
about water for just $17.50 – a 50% discount.
“Water & the Shaping of California” is a beautifully designed
book that discusses the engineering feats, political decisions
and popular opinions that reshaped nature and society, leading to
the water projects that created the California we know today. The
book includes a foreword by the late Kevin Starr, the Golden
State’s premier historian.
Hear what may be ahead for
California’s water supply in 2023 as well as the latest
improvements to snowmelt runoff forecasts at our Winter
Outlook Workshop next Thursday, Dec. 8 in
Southern California.
The one-day workshop in Irvine will include insight into whether
La Niña conditions projected to persist into this winter really
mean anything as a predictor in the new reality of climate
whiplash. You also will learn about what is and isn’t known
in forecasting winter precipitation weeks to months ahead, the
skill of present forecasts and ongoing research to develop
predictive ability.
This event is ideal for anyone involved in managing, modeling or
forecasting water resources or anyone simply interested in
hearing the latest science.
California water agencies that serve 27 million people will get
just 5% of what they requested from the state to start 2023,
water officials announced Thursday. The news of limited
water comes as California concludes its driest three-year
stretch on record and as water managers brace for a fourth
year with below-average precipitation. But if the winter is
wetter than expected, the state could boost how much supply it
plans to give out — as it did last year when allocations
started at 0% and ended the winter at 5%. Absent an end to
the drought, water-saving measures are poised to continue,
including calls for people to rip up decorative grass, limit
outdoor watering, take shorter showers and run dishwashers only
when full.
The winter storm that dropped rain across the Bay Area dumped
snow on the Sierras and ski resorts across Tahoe. Heavy snow
and slick roads also made for dangerous driving conditions but
the precipitation is a boon for California’s water
supply. Building on gains during a storm in early
November, this latest storm brought statewide snowpack up to
106% of normal for December 1, according to the California
Department of Water Resources. The snow is beneficial but
it’s still early in the season, said Andrew Schwartz, the lead
scientist at UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory. The
previous water year, for example, started out with plentiful
rains during October and December 2021 but were followed by
an extremely dry start to 2022.
There is less than a week left to
apply for our 2023 Water Leaders class
and be considered for the new cohort of California’s
preeminent water leadership program. Launched in 1997, the
Water Leaders program is aimed at providing a deeper
understanding of California water issues, building
leadership skills and preparing class members to take an
active, cooperative approach to decision-making about water
resources by studying a water-related topic in-depth
and crafting policy recommendations.
And, if you work for a member of the Association of California
Water Agencies, you can apply to have tuition and some
travel expenses covered under the
John P. Fraser Water Leaders Fellowship.
It’s hard to overstate how crucial this snow season is for the
western United States. Regions such as the West that receive a
great deal of their precipitation in the form of snow face a
number of challenges when snow droughts occur, including
shrinking water supplies. And western water supplies are truly
shrinking as some states are facing their second or third
drought year in a row and a large part of the region is stuck
in a 20+ year megadrought. Hanging over all of this is climate
change–influenced aridification in the Southwest that is
increasing evaporative demand, causing water supplies to
dwindle from rising temperatures even when there is adequate
precipitation.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
Drought—an extended period of
limited or no precipitation—is a fact of life in California and
the West, with water resources following boom-and-bust patterns.
During California’s 2012–2016 drought, much of the state
experienced severe drought conditions: significantly less
precipitation and snowpack, reduced streamflow and higher
temperatures. Those same conditions reappeared early in 2021
prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom in May to declare drought emergencies
in watersheds across 41 counties in California.
