Interactive map of decline in snowpack, and how it affects our water supply. (xpost from GD)
Drought, and the resulting shortage of melting snow, is driving the historic water shortages across much of the American West.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150406-california-drought-snowpack-map-water-science/
By Dennis Dimick, National Geographic
PUBLISHED APRIL 06, 2015
Click to view an interactive map of decline in snowpack, and how it affects the water supply, in California.
Things You Should Know About California’s Water CrisisDrought, and the resulting shortage of melting snow, is driving the historic water shortages across much of the American West.
By Dennis Dimick, National Geographic
PUBLISHED APRIL 06, 2015
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Here are five things you need to know about California’s water situation:
1. The state (and much of the West) relies heavily on snowpack each winter to resupply surface water streams and lakes. Because of a lack of winter storms and record high temperatures this past winter, snowpack in California is at an all-time low. This is the fourth consecutive year that the snowpack has been below normal. The state’s hydropower supply is also threatened when snowpack is scarce.
2. When surface water supplies are low, hidden water supplies beneath the surface in aquifers, or groundwater, are drilled to make up the shortfall. A large aquifer under the Central Valley is being rapidly depleted to make up for shortfalls in surface water supply. A 2011 study indicated that the Central Valley Aquifer is losing an amount of water each year equivalent to the nearly 29 million acre-feet of water found in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest surface reservoir on the Colorado River. (An acre-foot is one acre of ground covered one foot deep in water.)
California for the first time last year passed legislation regulating groundwater use, but those restrictions will not come into effect for years.
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h/t G_j 
