Just when you thought it was safe to go out without a raincoat
— a big weather shift is coming to the Bay Area this week.
Cooler temperatures, rain showers and even some thunderstorms
and small hail are in the forecast. The most likely period for
storms is Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon. Rainfall
totals this week will generally stay under a tenth of an inch,
reaching up to a half an inch in areas with heavy showers.
Normal June rainfall amounts are generally less than a quarter
inch for most of the Bay Area, making this an atypical
drenching heading into early summer.
The impact of historic weather and changing climate trends
threaten up to 70% of California beaches, which could be lost
to erosion by the end of this century, a recent U.S. Geological
survey found. The government report released earlier this year,
which is in the process of being peer-reviewed for publication,
found that between 25% and 70% of California’s beaches – and up
to two-thirds of the state’s approximately 840 miles of
coastline – could be washed away by 2100 due to rising sea
levels caused by global temperature increases and greenhouse
gas emissions. In 2017, a study conducted by the same
researchers found that between 31% and 67% were at risk of
disappearing.
Standing atop a ridge in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Mourad
Gabriel watches as the last of the morning’s fog burns off,
revealing the snow-capped Trinity Alps in the distance and a
rolling sea of evergreens below. In this slice of rural
California, about five hours north of San Francisco, narrow
two-lane roads snake between towering mountains and ancient
trees. … In the mountainous expanse below, drug
trafficking organizations have taken advantage of Northern
California’s remote wilderness to grow cannabis in deep
defiance of the state’s marijuana and environmental
regulations. They’ve poisoned soil, streams and wildlife
with banned pesticides, leveled countless acres of forest,
ignited massive wildfires, poached billions of gallons of
precious water and left nothing but death and debris in their
wake.
The temperature pendulum is set to swing back to cold as an
area of low pressure quickly envelops Northern California on
Tuesday, resurrecting the marine layer and reigniting
some unstable air in the Sierra. Based on the intensity of
Tuesday’s conditions in the forecast, some elements of the
cold, unsettled weather pattern could persist through the end
of the month. Tuesday’s rush of mist and high fog has a
prime chance of reaching cities as far inland as Sacramento if
an area of low pressure develops as strongly as some of the
runs from weather models suggest.
Rising seas and hammering waves could radically transform
California beaches by the end of the century, pushing the
coastline straight through homes in Stinson Beach and right
near a wastewater treatment plant in San Francisco. In Half
Moon Bay, a beach beloved by surfers would lose all its sand.
These are some of the worst-case scenarios in a new report
projecting that a majority of California beaches could
disappear by 2100 if more isn’t done to curb greenhouse
emissions and take measures to protect the coast. The dire
outlook, which foresees a range of 25% to 70% of the state’s
beaches eroding completely, is based on models that incorporate
historic rates of coastal erosion and projections for sea level
rise and future wave heights. Though the study covers a long
period, Californians got a preliminary glimpse this winter when
storms pummeled local beaches.
Removing trash from the ocean may not be as harmless as it
seems. That’s the conclusion of new research, which finds that
marine dumps known as “garbage patches” are home to countless
delicate creatures that could perish when people scoop debris
from the sea. The oceans are home to five major garbage
patches. They form far from land where strong currents swirl
together, ferrying trash of all sizes. Some of it has been
eroded by the churn into tiny debris known as microplastics.
The largest of these marine debris fields is known as the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch. Spanning 1.6 million square kilometers
midway between Hawaii and the coast of California, it was first
observed in 1997 by Charles Moore, an oceanographer and founder
of Algalita Marine Research and Education.
The Marin Municipal Water District is poised to adopt one of
its largest rate hikes in decades on Tuesday — a move that will
increase water costs for customers by about 20% — but staff
costs are not the driver, utility officials said. Agency staff
and governing board members said one of the primary reasons
behind the increase is to create new water supplies to avoid
what occurred in 2021, when the agency faced the possibility of
depleting its reservoirs amid a historic drought. … A common
point of debate among ratepayers is how much of their water
bills are going to staff wages, pensions and other benefits.
Staffing costs account for about 40% of the district’s overall
budget, but only comprise 4% of the proposed rate hike set to
go before the board on Tuesday, said Bret Uppendahl, the
district finance director. In 2022-2023, the district operated
on a $116.1 million budget, which includes an operating budget
of $92.2 million and a capital budget of $23.9 million.
Eureka’s halcyon days as the “timber capital” of California are
long gone, but the deepwater port city 270 miles north of San
Francisco may see its fortunes turn as the hub of the state’s
first foray in offshore wind energy. Located on Humboldt Bay at
a particularly windy corner of the Northern California coast,
Eureka sits across two of the five swaths of Pacific Ocean
along the California coast that the federal government
auctioned off to offshore wind developers this past December
for a total of $757 million. The three other leases are on the
Central Coast across from Morro Bay. California is a late entry
in the race to explore offshore wind as a source of renewable
energy because until recently it wasn’t feasible to deploy wind
turbines on the steep ocean bottom off the Pacific Coast.
There has been a lot of attention on the parts of California
that saw a huge winter. One example is the Tulare Lake basin,
which has flooded again as the southern Sierra snowpack melts.
Just about all of the state’s reservoirs are now near full.
Shasta and Oroville, the two largest, are both well above their
historical averages. Trinity Lake, however, is one Northern
California reservoir where all the rain and snow hasn’t quite
added up. Trinity is at just 39 percent capacity — just
half its historical average. It’s a reservoir that works a bit
differently from others but the people living there think they
missed out on this winter and they’re not happy about it.
California’s recent drought flared into the state’s driest
three-year period on record before its abrupt end this spring,
and few people saw it coming. Research published Wednesday
suggests that the drought and the climatic conditions behind it
had an unlikely driver: the Australian bushfires of 2019 and
2020. According to the groundbreaking study,
the massive wildfires thousands of miles away
unleashed so much smoke that they triggered a chain of events
in the atmosphere, ultimately cooling the tropical Pacific
Ocean and hastening formation of a La Niña climate pattern. La
Niña, which stuck around for an unusual three winters, is
associated with droughts throughout much of California.
The aquatic plant in Clear Lake that has been around the
longest is without question the tule. That plant has been part
of Clear Lake for at least several thousand years and is the
most common aquatic plant on the lake. The tule is easily
recognized. It’s a tall plant ranging in height from 3-6 feet.
The stem is round, green in color and topped with brown seed
clusters. The tule is almost always found standing in water.
They are located around the lake and are a native plant. Tules
die during the winter months and come back in the spring and
early summer months. They are a hardy plant and can withstand
drought as well as flooding.
As sea level rise threatens to inundate hundreds of homes, cut
off roads and swallow the sands of Stinson Beach, Marin
planners and town residents are preparing a new defense plan in
an effort to save the popular coastal destination. Bordered by
both the Pacific Ocean and Bolinas Lagoon, the town of about
500 residents is in the vanguard of Marin communities most
vulnerable to rising ocean waters. Residents such as Jeff
Loomans, who has owned a home in the town for 13 years, said
the future their community faces is driven home by recent
incidents such as the January winter storms that battered
homes, broke pilings, flooded roads and washed away tons of
sand.
California’s stubbornly persistent illegal cannabis industry
isn’t just undercutting the legal market — it’s also behind
some of the world’s most blatant water theft. The state’s
estimated $8 billion underground marijuana industry consumes
staggering volumes of the precious resource, despite the state
legalizing recreational use back in 2016. Some participants
have been known to truck in stolen water, while others take it
from fire hydrants or dig illegal wells. Years of
off-and-on droughts in the state have exacerbated the
problem. … An average cannabis plant requires as much as
5 gallons of water a day and takes anywhere from 90 to 275 days
to grow … In California’s northern Siskiyou County,
where there’s been a longtime heavy presence of illegal
marijuana growing and drought conditions are among
the worst in the state, Nores said he’s seen drilling
of wells without permits and other obvious water theft.
Tidal flooding is not currently a regular issue for the
California coast, but scientists say it could be by the end of
this century. A new “Flooding Analysis Tool” produced by
scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows that in
the coming decades, the number of days with tidal flooding will
likely increase for all locations mapped around the United
States. That increase in high tide flooding is directly
linked to global sea level rise, spurred on by climate
change. “There are things that cause sea level to rise and
we know those things quite well,” said Dr. Ben Hamlington, who
is one of the research scientists contributing to the flooding
analysis tool at JPL. “On global scales we know that melting
ice contributes to rising sea levels” Hamlington says the
challenge is communicating how local factors will affect the
severity of the impacts of sea level rise.
Forecasters from the World Meteorological Organization are
reporting increased chances that the global climate pattern
known as El Niño will arrive by the end of summer. With it
comes increased chances for hotter-than-normal temperatures in
2024. While there is not yet a clear picture of how strong the
El Niño event will be or how long it might last, even a
relatively mild one could affect precipitation and temperature
patterns around the world. … El Niño is associated with
warmer-than-normal ocean surface temperatures in the central
and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. In the United States, it
tends to lead to rainier, cooler conditions in much of the
South, and warmer conditions in parts of the North.
In the wake of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service saying it
will not grant an emergency Endangered Species Act listing for
the Clear Lake hitch, the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians
voiced its disappointment with the decision. On Tuesday, Fish
and Wildlife announced that it wouldn’t give the listing, which
the California Fish and Game Commission, Lake County’s tribes
and the Center for Biological Diversity asked for the agency to
do last year. The hitch, a fish native to Clear Lake, is known
as the “chi” to Lake County’s tribes, for whom it has had an
important cultural role due to being a primary food source
historically.
Fort Bragg is embarking on an innovative pilot project to
desalt ocean water for the Mendocino Coast community using
carbon-free wave action to power an energy-intensive process
that in other cases generates climate changing greenhouse
gases. The design comes from a young Quebec-based company
called Oneka Technologies that makes floating, raft-like units
containing the equipment needed to draw in water, pressurize
and force it through reverse-osmosis membranes, then send it
back to shore in a flexible pipe on the ocean floor. Fort Bragg
will start with a single, 16-foot by 26-foot unit, anchored
about a mile off shore of the Noyo Headlands, Public Works
Director John Smith said. It could be deployed in perhaps six
or eight months, once a variety of tests are completed to
determine the best location for it.
A project that will aim to restore wetlands at the north end of
Bolinas Lagoon and reduce the chance of flooding on the only
road leading to Bolinas has reached its final design stage.
Marin County supervisors have allocated an additional $325,000
to the project from Measure A sales tax revenue. The
apportionment reflected increases in contracts with WRA Inc., a
San Rafael environmental consultancy, for design and permitting
work that now totals over $2 million. … Pearson said all
of the additional $8 million in funding necessary for project
has been secured, and an environmental analysis required by the
California Environmental Quality Act will be made available to
the public for comment in September. The lagoon work, which is
slated to be done over two years, could begin as early as the
summer of 2024.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that it will
not grant an emergency endangered species listing to the Clear
Lake hitch, however, a listing under the agency’s regular
process could still happen after a species evaluation is
complete in two years’ time. The Fish and Wildlife Service said
it will continue to invest in projects that support the hitch’s
recovery while moving forward with its full evaluation of the
species scheduled to be completed by January 2025. Lake County
News reached out to Sarah Ryan, environmental director for the
Big Valley Pomo on Tuesday, to ask for the tribe’s comment.
However, as of press time, the tribe did not offer a formal
response to the federal emergency listing decision.
At hundreds to thousands of years old, California’s iconic
redwoods — the tallest trees in the world — have truly stood
the test of time. But all of our atmospheric river storms have
left them with a case of weather whiplash in this age of
climate change. Todd Dawson is one of the only researchers in
the world to explore an ecosystem few of us have ever seen up
close before; he and his team are expert tree climbers,
conducting research at the tops of the redwoods more than 200
feet high. … Dawson, a professor of integrative biology
and environmental science policy & management at UC Berkeley,
said the weather extremes are taking a toll on California’s
official state trees. Dawson said coast redwoods and giant
sequoias are now dealing with weather whiplash.
Garrett Binder showed up for opening day of the rafting season
relieved his companion was a black Labrador retriever, a breed
long known to innately thrive in the water. … Coming out of a
record winter with water runoff that caused flooding over much
of California, the Russian River, like many waterways in the
state, was transformed into a fast and wide torrent — prompting
concern from North Bay agencies tasked with river safety. In
April, the Russian River — a favorite floating go-to for the
masses — ran at a rate of 1,800 cubic feet per second. To put
the flow into perspective, imagine Golden State Warriors Point
Guard Steph Curry passing 1,800 basketballs to a certain point
all at once.
Hundreds of hazardous industrial sites that dot the California
coastline – including oil and gas refineries and
sewage-treatment plants – are at risk of severe flooding from
rising sea level if the climate crisis worsens, new research
shows. If planet-warming pollution continues to rise unabated,
129 industrial sites are estimated to be at risk of coastal
flooding by 2050 according to the study, published Tuesday in
the journal Environmental Science & Technology by researchers
from University of California at Los Angeles and Berkeley, as
well as Climate Central. Researchers also found that residents
living within a kilometer — about 0.6 miles — of these
contaminated sites tend to be more vulnerable: people of color,
the elderly, unemployed and low-income communities.
A drought emergency declaration in place over the past two
years was lifted in the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
meeting Tuesday. “Current conditions are not beyond the control
of the services, personnel equipment and facilities of the
county” after a stormy winter and spring helped replenish local
water reserves, the resolution states. The board voted
unanimously to approve the item as part of this week’s consent
calendar. Governor Gavin Newsom lifted some drought provisions,
such as emergency water deliveries, around the state last
month. The measure maintained the ban on wasteful water uses
like ornamental lawns and preserved emergency orders focused on
groundwater supply, among other responses to drought.
Earth is under an “El Niño watch” as scientists eye signs that
the climate pattern is developing. Its arrival could mean
significant impacts worldwide, including a push toward levels
of global warming that climate scientists have warned could be
devastating. Since March, a rapid increase in average ocean
temperatures has been helping to fuel speculation that El Niño
is imminent. The pattern could mark a quick departure from an
unusually extended spell of El Niño’s inverse counterpart, La
Niña, which scientists say ended in February. … Some of
the most severe El Niños have delivered heavy rainfall and
mudslides to Southern California, for example. Impacts can vary
depending on the strength of an El Niño, however. Larger
temperature and wind anomalies mean a stronger El Niño.
