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Topic: North Coast

Aquafornia news January 30, 2023 Mendocino Voice

A look at Mendocino County water: Rainfall gives “breathing room,” but only infrastructure, climate solutions can ease drought

Even while power outages, flooding, and downed trees plagued Mendocino County during the first weeks of 2023, we could take comfort in the fact that on California’s drought-ridden soil, rain is good news. Lake Mendocino hit its highest amount of water storage in more than a decade, and our past month of precipitation is on track with or better than “normal” conditions over the past 30 years.  … A high water table and a near-full reservoir can no longer be taken at face value: water managers, well users, and those who watched Governor Gavin Newsom deliver a speech on water rights from the bed of Lake Mendocino in 2021 know better than to expect a couple weeks of rain to reverse decades of water insecurity. According to a table from the California WaterBlog, drought can be considered “over” in only one area of impact this month: soil moisture. 

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Aquafornia news January 26, 2023 KOMO - Seattle

La Niña weather isn’t done, but ocean temperatures are heading toward a new phase

La Niña brings cooler than normal and wetter than normal winter weather for the Pacific Northwest…usually. Cold storms with high amounts of rain and mountain snow, along with a few more rounds of lowland snow, keep the precipitation above average and temperatures below. Cooler and wetter than the average for the Pacific Northwest, La Niña also creates drier than average winters over the southwest United States; most often, a drought builds. Not this year! Our rare, third-consecutive La Niña winter has been filled with variability.

Related article: 

  • San Francisco Chronicle: California weather to be shaped by an ‘omega block’ this week. Here’s how it impacts the Bay Area
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Aquafornia news January 24, 2023 The New York Times

A ‘big night’ for newts, and for a California newt brigade

California is experiencing one of its wettest winters in recent history following a series of atmospheric rivers that hit the state in rapid succession. The recent downpours and deluges wreaked havoc on many parts of Northern California. But north of San Francisco, the town of Petaluma was spared the worst of the storms. There, the rain has been a boon for newts. … What the newts need now is a safe way to get to their rendezvous points. In many places, busy roads lie between newts and their breeding grounds. In Petaluma and other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, thousands of newts are killed by cars each year as they try to cross these roads. The carnage in Petaluma is so severe that a group of local residents has taken it upon themselves to stop it.

Related article: 

  • Washington Post: A dog fell into California floodwaters. Saving him was a team effort.
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Aquafornia news January 20, 2023 Sacramento Bee

What does California rain, snow mean for drought conditions?

For the first time in nearly two years, the entire state of California is not experiencing “abnormally dry” conditions — though most of it is. The U.S. Drought Monitor, in a weekly update published Thursday, reports 99.36% of the state in at least an “abnormally dry” status, as of Jan. 17, down from 100% a week ago. Better news: None of the state is in “extreme” or “exceptional” drought. In the northwest corner of the state, the majority of Del Norte County is drought free. A move in the needle, however slight, means the string of heavy rainstorms have temporally improved drought conditions. It does not mean the drought is over.

Related articles: 

  • San Francisco Chronicle: California’s Del Norte County is almost fully out of drought
  • Los Angeles Times: Did the recent winter storms bring Big Bear Lake back to full capacity?
  • CBS – Bay Area: Shasta Lake level rise thrills local recreation business operators
  • Santa Cruz Sentinel: Editorial | Drought? Why it still lingers after rains
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Aquafornia news January 17, 2023 California WaterBlog

Blog: Nature’s gift to nature in early winter storms

The current wet spell, made up of a parade of atmospheric rivers, is a welcome change from the last three years of record dry and warm conditions. For very good reasons, the focus during these big, early winter storms is first and foremost on flood management and public safety. There is of course also great interest in the potential of these storms to relieve water shortages for communities and farms. What is not always appreciated is the role of these early winter storms in supporting the health of freshwater ecosystems. For millennia, California’s biodiversity evolved strategies to take advantage of these infrequent, but critical high flow events. Benefits from recent storms are now being realized throughout the state, from temperate rainforests of the North Coast to semi-arid and arid rivers in the south. 

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Aquafornia news January 12, 2023 NPR

How dynamically managing California’s reservoirs could save more water

Despite several weeks of torrential rain and flooding, California is still facing a severe multi-year drought. That has many people thinking about how to better capture winter floodwaters to last through the dry season. An innovative approach at two California reservoirs could help boost the state’s water supply, potentially marking a larger shift from decades-old water management approaches to a system that can quickly adapt to precipitation in a changing climate. At issue are rules that, at face value, seem perplexing to many Californians. Even in a chronically dry state, reservoirs are not allowed to fill up in the winter. … Two sites, Folsom Reservoir and Lake Mendocino, are rethinking this by using weather forecasts to guide their operations. Instead of sticking to set rules, they only empty out if a major storm is forecasted for the days ahead.

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Aquafornia news January 10, 2023 CNN

NOAA’s hurricane hunters are now targeting the West Coast’s atmospheric rivers

NOAA’s hurricane hunters might be just as busy now as they were during hurricane season. However, it’s not hurricanes they are flying through, but the atmospheric river systems plaguing California since Christmas week. Atmospheric rivers may not make headlines in the same way hurricanes do, but they can have extreme consequences. “Atmospheric rivers can span the whole Pacific. They are long and narrow, but they’re way larger than hurricanes,” Atmospheric River Reconnaissance Coordinator Anna Wilson said. They are crucial to the West Coast. Half the rain and snow the West gets comes from atmospheric rivers, which are plumes of moisture coming in from the Pacific Ocean. And they cross an area with very few observation sites, making them challenging to forecast.

Related articles: 

  • Columbia Climate School: California’s Atmospheric Rivers Warn of Future Climatic Calamity
  • BBC: What are atmospheric rivers?
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Aquafornia news January 9, 2023 The New York Times

How did a normally dry La Niña winter become so rainy?

As rain has deluged our parched state since New Year’s Eve, many Californians have found themselves asking a familiar question: Is this somehow because of El Niño? In the California imagination, the climate pattern known as El Niño has an almost mythological status as a harbinger of prolonged wet spells, while its counterpart, La Niña, is associated with drought. The past three years have been La Niña years. The continuing procession of storms this winter has drawn comparisons to the famed wet winter of 1997-98, when rain driven by El Niño drenched the Golden State. Californians are bracing for one of the season’s most intense storms to date on Monday and Tuesday. But Daniel L. Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that El Niño hasn’t taken over — yet.

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Aquafornia news January 9, 2023 Newsweek

How much rain does California need to get out of drought?

The torrential rainfall across much of central and northern California may have helped to pull a tiny piece of the state out of drought. Data from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that while 97.93 percent of California is experiencing some degree of drought, the remaining 2.07 percent is only classified as “abnormally dry.” … However, a lot more rain would be needed to drag California out of its decades-long megadrought, as short-term fluctuations in how dry an area is at a given time is drastically different to the long-term trend of dryness across the state.

Related articles: 

  • Marin Independent Journal: Marin water reservoir system near capacity amid storms
  • Napa Valley Register: Drought busters? Why Northern California storms could mean temporary relief in 2023
  • Newsweek: California Reservoir Water Levels Before and After Rain
  • Ukiah Daily Journal: Lake Mendocino rising
  • KTLA – Los Angeles: These 2 corners of California are no longer in a drought
  • Marin Independent Journal: Water supply discussion needs to focus on updating infrastructure
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Aquafornia news January 9, 2023 NPR

Why we can — and cannot — collect rainwater in places like California

A bomb cyclone hit California this week, knocking out power, downing trees, dumping massive amounts of water. Now, that last one, massive amounts of water – it’s interesting because all that rain is hitting in a state that has been stricken with drought. Some California residents are watching this precious resource wash away and wondering, why can’t we save the water for later, for times when we desperately need it? Well, Andrew Fisher, hydrogeologist and professor at UC Santa Cruz, attempted to answer that question in an op-ed for The LA Times. And we have brought him here to try to answer it for us. Professor Fisher, welcome.

Related articles: 

  • New York Times: Opinion: California Could Capture Its Destructive Floodwaters to Fight Drought
  • Modesto Bee: Can we catch more of this winter’s huge runoff? Two Stanislaus area projects show how
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Aquafornia news January 6, 2023 Lost Coast Outpost

A major sewage spill is happening in Rio Dell as stormwater flows into quake-damaged collection pipes

The City of Rio Dell is experiencing an ongoing hazardous materials spill as heavy rainfall infiltrates outdated sewer pipes that were damaged during the 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck on December 20. An estimated 140,000 gallons rain-diluted wastewater has spilled out of a manhole cover at the end of Painter Street, near the city’s wastewater treatment plant, and the spill is continuing at a rate of about 50 gallons per minute, according to Rio Dell City Manager Kyle Knopp.

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Aquafornia news January 5, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Thursday Top of the Scroll: Toddler killed, cities evacuated as massive storm lashes Northern California

A powerful winter storm unleashed heavy rain and strong winds across Northern California on Wednesday, triggering evacuations and power outages, and heightening fears of widespread flooding and debris flows. … Wednesday’s storm is the third atmospheric river that’s hit California in the last two weeks. The successive storms have brought a deluge of water to the drought-stricken state, prompting Gov. Newsom to declare a state of emergency to “support response and recovery efforts.” … The series of atmospheric rivers that started toward the end of December was somewhat surprising after one of California’s driest years on record, which left reservoirs drained and soils parched.

Related articles: 

  • San Francisco Chronicle: Two dead as storm wallops Bay Area, downing trees, flooding roads, cutting electrical service 
  • Los Angeles Times: Storm slams Southern California with heavy rain, flood fears and strong winds
  • CNN: Hurricane-force wind gusts blow through California as part of the ‘bomb cyclone’ hitting the coast
  • California Department of Water Resources: News release: DWR Prepares for More Storms and Potential Flooding
  • Associated Press: Evacuations ordered as California braces for rain, floods
  • Associated Press: Wild weather driven by roiling Pacific, nature and warming
  • USA Today: ‘Rivers in the sky’: Graphics show atmospheric river soaking California’s Bay Area
  • Modesto Bee: Gov. Gavin Newsom declares emergency for major California storm, flooding in forecast
  • Orange County Register: Forecast of 16-foot swells prompts California coast to brace for floods
  • Los Angeles Times: Atmospheric river poses lethal danger for homeless people. California scrambling to help
  • San Francisco Chronicle: Pacheco Reservoir dam spillway fails, San Benito County residents warned to prepare for evacuations
  • The Washington Post: As powerful storms deluge California, a river community evacuates — again
  • San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area storms: What to do if you’re caught in a flood in your car or home
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Aquafornia news January 4, 2023 Press Democrat

Editorial: Don’t count on a drought-buster

The storm door is open — at least for now. An atmospheric river battered Northern California this past weekend. The North Bay was largely spared, but torrential rain across much of the region lifted streams over their banks, trapped cars as roadways became routes for kayaks and canoes, and flooded homes and businesses from San Francisco to Sacramento. The National Weather Service says another “truly … brutal system” will slam Northern California on Wednesday. This time, Sonoma County appears to be in the path. That could mean fierce wind gusts, intense rain, flooded roads, mudslides and power outages. By Friday, the Russian River is expected to reach flood stage in Guerneville.

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Aquafornia news January 4, 2023 Los Angeles Times

String of brutal atmospheric rivers imperils a California already weakened by drought

A successive series of powerful atmospheric river storms poses a growing threat to California as the ground becomes more saturated, river levels rise and heavy winds threaten the power infrastructure. This week’s storms are expected to dump intense levels of rain in a fairly short period of time. The greatest potential for disaster is in Northern California, which has already been battered by several destructive storms — including one this weekend that caused a deadly levee breach. But each new storm, including one set to arrive Wednesday, adds new pressure.

Related articles: 

  • CalMatters: Sacramento Valley, already deluged, braces for more floods
  • New York Times: California Braces for Yet More Rain
  • San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area flood risk - This detailed map shows danger zones
  • Sacramento Bee: Flash flood watch for possible debris flow in Northern California wildfire burn scars
  • Modesto Bee: Officials brace for more storms and flood threat over next 14 days in Modesto area
  • Courthouse News Service: Waterlogged California bracing for another round of storms
  • Bloomberg: California Braces for Its Next Deluge as Pacific Storms Line Up
  • CNN: California braces for more ‘brutal’ flooding and mudslides as experts warn it won’t quench historic drought
  • USA Today: ‘Truly a brutal storm’ heading for California; forecasters predict flooding, landslides, deaths: Updates
  • NASA: Floodwater Inundates North-Central California
  • Los Angeles Times: Massive ‘atmospheric river’ to bring heavy rains, winds, flooding across California
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Aquafornia news January 3, 2023 Inside Climate News

When the state cut their water, these California users created a collaborative solution

California Gov. Gavin Newsom stood at a podium placed on the sandy bottom of Lake Mendocino, a basin built to hold more than 20 billion gallons of water. It was spring, which meant that the reservoir should have held water from the winter rains that in past decades provided water to millions of Californians. Instead, on this afternoon in 2021, the ground was dry and cracked. Newsom was there to declare a drought emergency. … Now, the watershed and the reservoir where this drought began have become the proving ground for an innovative water agreement that aims to make more of scarce supplies. Creators say the program could become a prototype for accords elsewhere in the state and in the West, a beacon of collaboration in a place where water can be contentious. 

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Aquafornia news January 3, 2023 Los Angeles Times

A hunger for anchovies is killing off endangered salmon

They’ve been pushed to the brink of extinction by dams, drought, extreme heat and even the flare of wildfires, but now California’s endangered winter-run Chinook salmon appear to be facing an entirely new threat — their own ravenous hunger for anchovies. After the worst spawning season ever in 2022, scientists now suspect the species’ precipitous decline is being driven by its ocean diet. Researchers hypothesize that the salmon are feasting too heavily on anchovies, a fish that is now swarming the California coast in record numbers. Unfortunately for the salmon, anchovies carry an enzyme called thiaminase, which breaks down thiamine — a vitamin that is essential to cell function in all living things.

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Aquafornia news January 3, 2023 Sacramento Bee

Evacuation the ‘only option’ for Sacramento County communities near still-rising rivers

With more storms barreling toward Northern California, south Sacramento County communities near the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers are on edge for new flood evacuations this week. Point Pleasant residents were ordered to evacuate on Sunday and Wilton residents were told to remain prepared to evacuate if they haven’t already even as reclamation district officials raced around the clock to shore up levee breaks ahead of the storm system expected to arrive Wednesday. … Levees are crucial along this 80-mile river because there’s no dam to slow the flow from headwaters in the Eldorado National Forest, said Jay Lund, vice-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Consequently, he said, flash flooding is a common after warm storms like the one this past weekend that produced more rain than snow.

Related articles: 

  • The Guardian: Flood warnings in northern California after powerful New Year’s storm
  • ABC 10 – Sacramento: Cosumnes River Flooding: Why the river is unlike most in CA
  • 48 Hills: What if floods are part of the new normal in San Francisco?
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Aquafornia news December 22, 2022 California Trout

Blog: Over $13m recommended for funding CalTrout-led fish passage projects

On December 14, NOAA announced recommendations for funding through the Restoring Fish Passage through Barrier Removal grant program. In California, NOAA recommended over $21 million to fund transformational projects across the state that reopen migratory pathways and restore access to healthy habitat for fish. Of that total, NOAA recommended more than $13 million (approximately 60%) for projects led by California Trout, the largest freshwater conservation organization in California. The award recommendation would fund two of CalTrout’s fish passage projects in the Mt. Shasta/Klamath ($9.9 million) and the South Coast ($3.2 million) regions. 

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