Tag Archives: Drought

El Nino to Bring Blessing but Possible Disaster for the Pacific

The El Nino weather pattern is taking shape and according to scientists there is no way this El Nino is going to fail from giving rain to some areas in California and elsewhere that are desperate for rain.  

“There’s no longer a possibility that El Niño wimps out at this point. It’s too big to fail,” said Bill Patzert, climatologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles Times reported. “And the winter over North America is definitely not going to be normal.”

Rainfall opportunities this week across the Southwest may be the beginning of more substantial drought relief heading into the winter as an El Niño-fueled weather pattern takes shape in the region.

While most are calling this unusual and very strong El Nino an answered prayer there are countries who are suffering already with lack of food and crops dying off.  Papua New Guinea’s drought has already claimed two dozen lives, and the looming El Niño weather pattern could be as severe as in 1997-98, when over 23,000 people died.  

Forecasters say that this El Nino could leave 4 million people in the Pacific without food or drinking water.

“El Niño has the potential to trigger a regional humanitarian emergency and we estimate as many as 4.1 million people are at risk from water shortages, food insecurity and disease across the Pacific,” Sune Gudnitz, head of the Pacific region office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

New Kind of Troubles for Drought Ravaged California

California is sinking because of the four year drought that has farmers digging deeper and deep down in order to find groundwater for their crops, resulting in a higher risk of flooding,

Nearly half of America’s fruits, vegetables and nuts are produced in California. As farmers dig deeper down to find water, the land gradually starts to cave in, an effect scientists refer to as subsidence. Some parts of California are settling lower at a rate of two inches a month

According to Michelle Sneed of the United States Geological Survey, the area being permanently affected by subsidence is enormous, stretching about 1,200 square miles, roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island.Because of this sinking  problem, when rains eventually do come the flooding will destroy the crops while also washing away more of the land.

Sinking land is not the only problem faced by California farmers.

Anger is building in central California at state and federal agencies, who are being blocked by environmentalists from pumping water from rivers onto their arid lands, farmers blame both regulations and the agencies and activists who go to court to enforce them.

“These are communities who rely almost solely upon agricultural production or agri-business activities,” Gayle Holman, spokeswoman for the nation’s largest agricultural water supplier, the Westlands Water District, told FoxNews.com. “If we continue down this path, we will most likely see our food production turn to foreign soil. We could lose the economic engine that agriculture brings to our nation.”

California continues to pray for rain and in the hopes that the forecasted El Nino this winter will offer relief, although many are concerned that too much rain could be just as much of a disaster as this historic drought.  

Heat Waves, Droughts More Likely To Mix

Scientists have built the case that heat waves and droughts are now more likely to mix in the United States than at any point in the nation’s history.

“Despite an apparent hiatus in rising temperature and no significant trend in droughts, we show a substantial increase in concurrent droughts and heatwaves across most parts of the United States,” Omid Mazdiyasni and Amir AghaKouchak, who study climate and hydrology trends at UC Irvine, wrote in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study shows that in the 20 years between 1990 and 2010, heat waves and droughts took place simultaneously more frequently than between 1960 and 1980.  In most cases, the two overlapped more than 50% more during the latter period of time.

States along the southern portion of the nation faced the most occurrences of the combined factors.

The study also examined damage to society and overall health from the combination of the heat waves and drought.  They cited a situation in 2003 where Europe was struck with the combo and it lead directly or indirectly to 15,000 deaths in France.

Drought Makes One California County Like Living in Third World Country

The four-year drought that has been drying out California is making some parts of the state on par with life in some third world nations.

In a county that traces its history to residents fleeing the “Dust Bowl” of Oklahoma in the 1930s, residents are facing fields of dust that lay fallow because of a lack of water.

Tulare County brought in $8.1 billion in agriculture revenue in 2014, the most of any county in the nation.  Now, 1,252 of its wells are dry, more than all other California counties combined.

In Okieville, California, some residents can’t even get enough water for a single flush of their toilet.  Almost all the 100 homes in the community are without water because their wells have run dry.  Residents banded together to create a single water line from the only well in town deep enough to hit an aquifer that is rapidly drying out.

The county has been filling 2,500 gallon tanks in many yards using state drought relief money.  Still, officials admit the conditions are disastrous but because of the nature of the problem it’s not easy to show to the world.

“It’s not an earthquake or flood where you can drive down the street and see the devastation,” Andrew Lockman, of Tulare County’s Office of Emergency Services told the AP.

Some farmers have gone to extreme steps to keep their farms in place.  One farm bought their own $1 million drilling rig to make sure they never run dry.

Many residents of Okieville are so poor they cannot afford to move nor can they sell a house without water.  Maria Marquez said they pray for rain and that she does it nightly when she bathes her 4-year-old granddaughter.

“God, give us water so we don’t have to move,” the 4-year-old says, pressing her palms together. “God, please fill up our tank, so we don’t run out of water.”

California Drought Could Eliminate Endangered Fish

While California’s drought is driving up food prices nationwide and causing some cities to ration water resources, the drought is also taking its toll on wildlife.

The delta smelt, a fish that lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, has been endangered for years.  The drought, now in its fourth year, has driven population levels to the point that a July survey showed zero for the level of delta smelt abundance.  Researchers found “a handful” of the fish but the number was too small to register on the population gauge.

“The delta smelt is basically on its last legs right now. We’ll be lucky if it survives the coming year,” said Peter Moyle, a fish biologist at the University of California.”The drought has basically made all the things that were bad for smelt worse.”

Other native fish are endangered because of the drought including longfin smelt, green sturgeon and Chinook salmon.

Moyle said that because the water releases from the Shasta Dam were so warm, an entire generation of winter-run Chinook was erased.  The eggs either never hatched or the young died soon after hatching.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the operator of the dam, admitted miscalculating the volume of cold water and didn’t maintain the proper river temperature.

“We’re going to be losing most of our salmon and steelhead if things continue,” Moyle said.  “It would be a major extinction event.”

Current El Nino Already Second Strongest Ever Recorded for August

Federal meteorologists say the current El Nino is already the second strongest ever recorded for this time of year.

The officials with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say it could be one of the “most potent weather changers” in the last 65 years.

“There is a greater than 90% chance that El Niño will continue through Northern Hemisphere winter 2015-16, and around an 85% chance it will last into early spring 2016,” the NOAA said in a statement.

However, one NOAA official is warning that it might not bring the rain needed to end the drought in California and other western states.

“A big El Nino guarantees nothing,” said Mike Halper, deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. “At this point there’s no cause for rejoicing that El Nino is here to save the day.”

El Nino, created when the water in the Pacific Ocean is warmer than normal, usually brings large amounts of winter rain to California and snow to the Rocky Mountain range.

California’s state climatologist, Michael Anderson, told the New York Times that California would need one and half times the normal amount of rainfall to get out of their drought conditions and he found that unlikely to take place.

“The one important element is that El Niño events are associated with large variability of outcome,” he said. And while people tend to remember years with powerful El Niño effects, he said, “People don’t associate as strongly the years when an El Niño event didn’t lead to a big outcome.”

El Nino Could Be Strongest In 50 Years

Meteorologists say that El Nino could be one of the strongest in the last half century and could bring significant amounts of rainfall to California.

The forecasters say the storms might not break the drought that has gripped the Golden State.

“Current rain deficits are way too large,” stated AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bernie Rayno to Fox News. “Even if California receives the rain that fell in 1997-98, it will not come close to ending the long-term drought.”

California currently has 71 percent of the state in “extreme to exceptional drought” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The forecasters at AccuWeather say that the heavy rains could be problems for California.

“A strong El Niño could be good news for the extreme drought in California,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said. “Unfortunately, a sudden turn to a stormy winter could also result in dangerous mudslides and flash flooding for the state.”

However, it’s not just California officials and forecasters that are concerned about El Nino.  Texas officials say the change to El Nino could bring significant flooding to the Lone Star State.

“The latest global model shows that in August, we’re dry in the lower Mississippi Valley and the Southeast, but wet in the Four Corners with the monsoon kicking,” Paul Pastelok, chief long-range forecaster for AccuWeather said to the Dallas Morning News. “Then you look at September, and the upper high breaks down. The Four Corners region is still wet, but some of that moisture starts to leak out. And when we get to October, the model has northern Texas with moderately above-normal rainfall.”

“After that, we’ll see a bull’s-eye for precipitation just east of Dallas into Louisiana.”

Wildfires Ravage California

The years-long drought in California is causing the perfect conditions for wildfires like the two currently raging in Southern California.

A fire in Santa Clarity has burned over 350 acres so far and has forced more than 1,000 people to flee their homes.

“I saw a fire in my neighbor’s backyard. That’s when I said, ‘Okay, it’s time to go,'” one resident said. “The next thing you know, they’re banging on my door, get out, get out!”

Officials say that this year’s fire season is starting months ahead of schedule.

“Our fuel moisture is running about where we would typically see it in August. So right now we’ve got pretty volatile conditions, and as we start getting into drier weather, we’re gonna see a lot more fire activity,” Los Angeles County Fire Department public information officer Tony Imbrenda told CBS.

The largest fire, the “Lake Fire”, has burned almost 26,000 acres since June 17th and is burning into the forest toward Heartbreak Ridge.  The fire is about 19% contained and according to the U.S. Forest Service has cost $17.6 million to fight to this point.

Fire officials say they have been hampered by residents flying drone aircraft to get images of the fire.  Because of those drones, officials had to suspend flights dropping water or flame-retardants.

California Governor Orders Mandatory Water Restrictions

For the first time, the governor of California has ordered mandatory water restrictions on all residents, businesses and farms.

All cities and towns are required to immediately cut their water consumption by 25 percent.

State officials say the cut of 25% will save 1.5 million acre-feet of water over nine months.

“This historic drought demands unprecedented action,” Brown said at a press conference.  “We have to pull together and save water in every way we can.”

The state suffered its lowest snowpack ever over the winter.  Experts say that over 11 trillion gallons of water will be needed for California to recover from this drought emergency.

“It is such an unprecedented lack of snow, it is way, way below records,” said Frank Gehrke, chief of snow surveys for the California Department of Water Resources.

Drought Could Cut Water To Brazil’s Largest City

A drought that has been called the “worst to hit Brazil’s biggest city in decades” is threatening to collapse the city’s water system.

Sao Paulo water utility company Sabesp says that unless they move now to a five days off, two days on system for providing water, the Cantareia water system will collapse.

Sao Paulo is Brazil’s richest state and economic hub.  Officials are concerned the lack of water will have a significant negative impact on the region’s and the nation’s economy as businesses will begin to relocate to other areas and countries.

The biggest impact would be on industrial factories that rely on large scale water supplies to produce goods.

The utility says the Cantareria is at 5.1% of capacity of 264 billion gallons due to the drought.

The state has been attempting to rush projects to bring extra water into the Cantareia system but the projects are well behind schedule.