California’s Deepening Drought: Ten Things to Know

[phantom power]

I just posted the topic headings.

1) This winter has not been the driest in California history.

2) This winter has been the warmest in California weather history, by far.

3) The “snow drought” is truly off the charts.

4) Reservoirs are fuller than you might expect--but not for long.

5) High-elevation fires could be ferocious this summer.

6) Agriculture may face a year of reckoning.

7) Other parts of the Southwest are also contending with serious drought.

8) Even a strong El Niño may not save the day.

9) There’s really no telling how long the drought will last.

10) Any winter could still bring catastrophic floods to California.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2950

[closeupready]

1. Has there been any study in terms of water usage? Where is water going?

How is it being used? Thanks.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. Agriculture/industry overwhelmingly.

Residential water use is very small in comparison. Brown's call for mandatory water rationing is nice but addressed literally a drop in the bucket of our water use. Almond trees alone account for something like 10% of CA water usage. We have also started to grow crops we have not in the past, stuff like cotton and rice that are incredibly water intensive. Add in environmental use (pumping in clean water to our rivers to keep the sea water from encroaching), fracking and the bottled water industry and you can see just where are clean water is going.

[closeupready]

3. Thx.

[Spirochete]

4. Guess it's time to switch over...

[KittyWampus]

5. do you know what kind of irrigation almond trees use in industrial farms?

Trees generally do well on drip lines. Relatively easy to set up, little evaporation.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. I work in the landscape industry --

Drip irrigation is fantastic and probably the single most efficient way to get water to a plant, but the shear volume of water that is required for a nut producing tree can be staggering.



Drip or not, that is a WHOLE lotta water use!

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/01/almonds-nuts-crazy-stats-charts