Santa Rosa CA Editorial: Best Get Ready For The Real Drought After Painfully Dry January

[hatrack]

EDIT

Across the state, it has been a similar story. January is typically California’s wettest month. But this year, little rainfall was recorded for the state. San Francisco recorded none for the month, a historic first. Sonoma County is still in better shape than some parts of the state thanks to an atmospheric river that soaked the North Coast in December. Where would we be if not for those early storms which left 14.7 inches of rain in Petaluma, 19.5 inches in Santa Rosa and 26.6 inches to date in Cloverdale for the season?

But what’s unclear is whether local communities can count on much of anything from here on in. Even if the region receives more rainfall, it’s unlikely to make much of a dent in the state’s drought situation.

Measurements taken in the Sierra Nevada on Thursday show that snow levels are now roughly 25 percent of normal, which represents a massive drop down from 50 percent recorded just a month earlier. Researchers say temperatures were as much as 8 degrees Fahrenheit above average in the Sierra Nevada during January.

Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency in mid-January as the snow pack fell to 20 percent of normal. The day is fast approaching when a similar declaration will be needed, if for no other reason than to get state and community leaders to shake off the notion that the torrential rains of December will return and face the awful truth that a fourth consecutive drought year is upon us. California had better get ready.

EDIT

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/state/3473945-181/pd-editorial-facing-facts-after

[daleanime]

1. kick, kick, kick.....

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

2. It is starting to rain,

And we may get rain through Monday night. Flooding forecast for the 6th and 7th. Glad I still have firewood, but no idea when I will get all the starts I bought for the garden planted. At least the soil will be wet.