Brace yourself for California's driest winter in 500 years: UC Berkeley professor

[Jesus Malverde]

Last edited Wed Jan 22, 2014, 03:59 AM - Edit history (1)

Yes, 2013 was the driest year in California since the 1840s, when recordkeeping started. But Lynn Ingram, a climate expert at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks this could be the Golden State's driest year in half a millennium.

"This could potentially be the driest water year in 500 years," said Ingram, a paleoclimatologist.

She studies fossilized records of earth's climate going back millions of years -- layers of rock or sediment, shells, microfossils -- or other indicators, including rings in trees, seeking a long view.

Based on the width of old tree rings, Ingram concludes California hasn't been this dry since 1580.

Ingram's perspective on climate, based on eons rather than months or years, leads her to some sobering conclusions. Droughts in the past -- during the Middle Ages, for example -- lasted decades or even a whole century.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2014/01/21/californias-driest-winter-in-500-years.html

[earthside]

1. No! No! No!

It is snowing in Washington, D.C. so this proves that we are in for global cooling!

What happens on the 'left' coast doesn't count.

[MrsKirkley]

2. So that awful ridge that's keeping snow away from the western and central US is likely to stay

in place for the rest of the winter? That's not what I wanted to hear at all, especially since the deepest snow we've had in my area this winter is 3 inches.

[cilla4progress]

4. You've had more than us...

here in eastern Washington.

Something about it feels apocolyptic (sp?)...or at least like a major shift.

[MoonchildCA]

3. Well...

...I can certainly vouch for the last 50.

[JDPriestly]

5. It's really, really dry and, so far, the warmest winter that I can remember even here.

The weather is incredible. I wonder what the summer will be like. It seems like it has been in the 70s and 80s just about every day this month.

[passiveporcupine]

6. Oregon is having a serious drought right now too.

I have spring water for domestic water, and I've been in my current place 17 years. Each year, since I moved in, the spring has run a little dryer. This fall we got a super cold blast in November/December that froze my water for four weeks. Once it warmed up again my water finally thawed and I had water for about two hours...then it was gone. Last week it rained hard for a couple of days and then it dried up again. It filled my tank up on the hill, but I'm rationing that very carefully now because the spring is no longer running. I've never seen this happen before. Usually by Christmas my tank is overflowing. Now NOAA says we will be in our current drought through April...and in Feb they may extend that when they come out with a new drought report. I live in the Cascades.

This summer for California and Oregon it will be really bad for forest fires, and I do live in the forest, so I'm worried about this. I'm really worried about both the water and the fire hazard here. I'm glad I'm not living in California right now because it's even worse down there.

[Jesus Malverde]

8. Fire is one of my biggest worries too...

Hang in there!

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Our precipitation is about normal up here, but

it's warm, warm, warm. It's been in the upper 30s for a couple of weeks and predicted in the mid-40s for the rest of this week. It's not unusual to get chinook winds up here in January, but it's usually a short-lived event, not weeks like this. It's very weird.

[Jesus Malverde]

9. morning bump..nt