Snowpack has dwindled
Just two years after California celebrated the end of its last devastating drought, the state is facing another one. Snowpack has dwindled to nearly nothing, the state’s 1,500 reservoirs are at only 50% of their average levels, and federal and local agencies have begun to issue water restrictions.
Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a drought emergency in 41 of the state’s 58 counties. Meanwhile, temperatures are surging as the region braces for what is expected to be another record-breaking fire season, and scientists are sounding the alarm about the state’s readiness.
From the selfish point of view I’m dreading that fire season, because it makes the air poisonous up here in the north.
That’s no good.
Along with wildfire risks, short water supply is putting immense pressure on the state’s agricultural industry, which grows over a third of the country’s vegetables and supplies two-thirds of the fruits and nuts in the US. Already farmers are culling crops and fallowing fields in anticipation of water shortages. Karen Ross, California’s food and agriculture secretary, told the California Chamber of Commerce that she expected 500,000 acres would have to sit idle this year.
No good.
Water is important enough in its own right, and the Sierra is basically the reservoir that makes California viable. But it is also going to have devastating effects on the Western power market. Hydroelectric is a significant percentage, and critically one of the most readily controlled that then facilitates integration of wind and PV.
Yep. The piece talks about that, I just didn’t include everything.
Not to mention the cost of living there, the oppressive state bureaucracy, the confiscatory tax rates, the homeless and crime problems, the abuses to migrant workers, the overpopulation, Bruce fucking Jenner, and on and on.
California is always doomed.
Argh, its.
I am curious how up the PNW this dwindling snowpack extends. If WA and BC are seeing a major shortfall, the power implications may be the greatest of all.
The snowpack is pretty good this year. I’m looking at part of it right now, and it’s quite abundant for June.