Monday Top of the Scroll: ‘The big melt’ has begun in California
[A]n immense wall of snow has started to drain from the Sierra Nevada as the skies warm over a near-record snowpack. “The Big Melt is now officially arriving,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, tweeted late last week. … Already, the bed of Tulare Lake, which was the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River before it was drained, has begun to refill in Kings County, submerging the great stretches of prime agricultural land and major dairy operations that took its place. And only about 5 percent of the snowpack has melted so far, according to Swain. (The indefatigable Swain has been an invaluable resource in educating the public on these complex climate disasters.)
Related articles:
- Los Angeles Times: Floodwaters threaten to drown a California city and prison
- ABC News – New York: California farming valley scrambles to save future as Tulare Lake floods take over
- The Washington Post: Largest snowmelt in California history could bring catastrophic flooding
- Los Angeles Times: California’s cool forecast could limit dangerous snowmelt flooding
- San Francisco Chronicle: It’s here - Why this may be the moment California’s ‘Big Melt’ accelerates
- San Francisco Chronicle: As Big Melt begins, California’s gushing rivers pose danger
- Weather Nation: California’s Expected Snowmelt
- KTVU – Oakland: California’s water and snowpack Motherlode: a blessing or a curse?
- Channel 10 – San Diego: Geologist weighs in on importance of California’s snowpack
- Channel 30 – Fresno: Merced County prepares for another possible flood
- Channel 30 – Fresno: PG&E building barriers to protect equipment from possible floods in South Valley