Railfan Technology > Hopefully Good News For California

From a list server i subscribe to: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Evidence-mounts-for-El-Nino-ease-California-Drought-332565522.html

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

It won't do much to ease the drought, that requires a good snowpack, which generally doesn't occur in El Nino years.

Most anything will help as long as there isn't heavy rain causing the mountains to slide down in to the valleys...

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

There's a summary published every two weeks or so by the NWS/NOAA that seems to have the base material for everybodies Forecasts and news stories. A recent discussion points out the temperature changes have become greater, some suggestion of storms moving further north. But the big story is the probablilties are based on it hitting Southern California and not adding to the water storage. If the storms move to the north there is less data to form probablities, which is where this prediction stuff falls apart. They don't have data for El Nino storms moving north and nobody wants to make a prediction.

Which is BS, if the it rains in Northern California then Lake Shasta, Lake Oroville, Trinity Lake and Whiskeytown get a decent collection then we're good for another year. Nobody mentions that LA gets a large amount of water from the Colorado River, with a watershed in... Colorado. Recent years have not been too good for the western slope so there's not so much water in the Colorado River either. Also, recently more cities have been pulling out of the Colorado.

The big talk has been about the high that has been forming off of California in the past few years. Not much info on how El Nino effects that either, since it's a relatively recent occurance. The Weather people back off on that since there is no historical info on El Nino and that particular high pressure. That's also what caused what people in the Eastern areas have been calling the 'Polar Vortex'. Interesting stuff but lots of data points.

NWS El Nino advisory site (notice it's not 'prediction' anymore):
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/index.shtml

This one might be more interesting, with links:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/15 15:07 by TCnR.

IF, sierra snowpacks in california AND the snowpacks in colorado (which feed the colorado river) continue to be LOW due to a drought (which NOBODY knows when it will end), where will nevada and california's drinking water come from?

just take a look at how the water levels in lake mead have DECREASED over the last 5-10 yrs............

66 

There's a rumor that everybody may move back to where they came from, but it's just a rumor.

TCnR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There's a rumor that everybody may move back to
> where they came from, but it's just a rumor.

Promises Promises.

jst3751 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TCnR Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There's a rumor that everybody may move back to
> > where they came from, but it's just a rumor.
>
> Promises Promises.

Hmm, that's what Oregonians said about the Californians when I lived in Eugene.  LOL​

goneon66 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> IF, sierra snowpacks in california AND the
> snowpacks in colorado (which feed the colorado
> river) continue to be LOW due to a drought (which
> NOBODY knows when it will end), where
> will nevada and california's drinking water come
> from?
>
> just take a look at how the water levels in lake
> mead have DECREASED over the last 5-10
> yrs............
>
> 66

GOOD question!  One answer is the 
"toilet-to-tap" wastewatertreatment  technology that Orange
County has been using since 2008.  The output is totally
pure distilled water -- which, I read, they have to add
minerals to in order to make it taste good.  All bacteria
and viruses and even all drug residuesand harmful chemicals
are completely removed from the wastewate.  rThey actually
pump the pure water into a nearby underground aquifer
which recharges fast,and then draw from that aquifer.

IMO, this drought is potentially so bad in its possible effects
that there should be a federally-funded program to help
pay for replacing California's aging wastewater treatment
plants with "toilet-to-tap" plants.  IF this horrible drought does
not end soon, that WILL be a disaster, which will justify California
getting federal disaster-relief funds to help to pay for building new
toilet-to-tap wastewater treatment plants.

Like it or not, we all depend on each other, and wishing that
California would fall into the ocean in the next big quake is
neither kind nor practical.     All of you really DO need us
Californians, especially those of us in Silicon Valley.

Well -- that is, unless you want to stop using e-mail and Google
and YouTube and social media -- such as FaceBook -- ALL of
which are located in Silicon Valley.  ("Be careful what you wish
for -- you might get it.")  This is not to mention the many, many
other thigns that Californians produce.  Like food..

I saw a statement on the news not long ago by a man who is an
expert climatologist, and specializes i El Ninos.  He said, "Just when
you think you have it figured out, it goes and does something different."
The El Nino band of warmer-than-normal ocean surface water along
the equator in the Pacific is only ONE of the MANY thigns that affect
the weather.  But it is the only thing that meteorologists can detect
several months in advance.

FWIW -- the 20th century was the wettest century in 1,300 years.
And 100-year droughts are not unheard of.   Much of California is
naturally semi-arid.

And another FWIW -- all of California's reservoirs together hold
only enough water to last the state's population 3 years, at recent
pre-drought-caused rates of use.

Margaret

(NOT an expert -- just sharing info I have learned from reliable sources.)

Margaret_SP_fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Margaret
>
> (NOT an expert -- just sharing info I have learned
> from reliable sources.)

But Margaret, you are an expert. An expert in making great posts.

;)

Too many of us Californians live our lives as though we are in a wet state with occasional dry periods, when it really is a dry state with occasional wet periods.

Posted from iPhone

I'm afraid it's more like they think the Taxes we pay are for the government to take care of everything for us.
When things go awry it's a failure of a business or economic relationship rather than simply running out of water.

-------------------------------------------------------
> Too many of us Californians live our lives as
> though we are in a wet state with occasional dry
> periods, when it really is a dry state with
> occasional wet periods.
>
> Posted from iPhone

jst3751 wrote ----
"
But Margaret, you are an expert. An expert in making great posts.

;)"

THANK you VERY much for the compliment!   I had no idea
my posts were appreciated that much.    I just try my best to
figure things out, and I also love to share facts that others here
may not know about.