In one week - pretty much everyone in California has started to freak out about the rain. Or lack thereof. In Mendocino they are starting to hassle the pot growers. But not because they grow pot! Because they use so much water. Never thought I'd see the day.
I read forecasters weren't expecting this to break for a couple of months. At first I didn't want to believe it, but forecasters are more right than wrong. Inside I started to freak out about my bug out plan. In January. I'm going into this summer with two elderly bunnies. I always worry about power outages in the summer. Bunnies don't handle heat well. They can not pant like other animals. Thankfully I've only had to rent a hotel room once. But with the state so dry you can imagine how much heat this adds.
Most lawns are already starting to brown up. In one week I think we've gone from 40% of the state in drought to 80% and you can see why with the vapor loop. All of that orange color is dry air. All of it. I've never seen a December and January without rain. Mr S. sent me a tweet from Nasa Earth showing almost no snow on Mount Shasta. Normally I'm planning what kind of crap I'm going to put in the garden this time of year. Now I'm trying to figure out a grey water system. Or I could steal water from San Fransisco. I hear they are all square.
NormD - I'm not sure why your post didn't show up. I got it in my mailbox, but for some reason blogger didn't post it. I'm re-posting it below.
ReplyDeleteIt's the first time I've ever hoped they all were vegetarians. If one drought was the only thing it took to get rid of them - I'd suffer for a year.
I completely agree with the storage but I didn't know they kept shedding overcapacity due to earthquakes. I thought they were just dicks. Good information. Thanks.
Welcome Norm!
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NormD has left a new comment on your post "It's gonna be a tough year in the West for farmers...":
When I grew up in Marin in the 70s we had a bad drought. We could not water lawns. Everything was dead. We collected used dishwater and water from the rinse cycle on our washer to hand water plants. One lane of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was shutdown for a large pipe that carried water from the East Bay to Marin. There were articles in the local newspapers talking about hauling icebergs down from Alaska.
Problem 1: Since the 60s the population of CA has doubled but we have built no new dams (nor raised existing dams)
Problem 2: Many water agencies won't fill dams to their limit due to perceived earthquake risks. Risks that they seem to take forever to address.
Problem 3: Enviros. Nuff said.
A drought is not a lack of rain but a mismatch between rain and storage. A few years ago we had some very wet winters, but an insufficient amount of that water was stored.
I assume the enviros are looking forward with glee to the things they will be able to force people to do in the name of the drought emergency.
Posted by NormD to snarkolepsy at Saturday, January 18, 2014 5:56:00 AM