Posted on 07/16/2021 8:50:18 AM PDT by blam
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency because of hot, dry conditions that have plagued the region and water supply.
Citing recent record temperature that killed at least 91 people in the state, increased wildfire activity and drought, Inslee called it “the summer of climate change.”
“This is not political hyperbole,” Inslee said. “It is a scientific consensus that is jarring the life of every Washingtonian in some way.”
A drought emergency declaration is issued when water supply is projected to be below 75% of average, and poses a hardship to water users and the environment. The declaration allows expedited emergency water right permitting and allows the state to aid state agriculture, protect public water supplies and boost stream flows to safeguard fish.
The cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett areas are not included in the drought declaration, with the governor’s office saying that those areas have enough water storage to get through the summer. The Department of Ecology said that drinking water supplies are holding up, but that the Department of Health is monitoring closely.
Laura Watson, director of the state Department of Ecology, said that the drought came as a surprise to many of them because of robust snowpack in the Cascade Mountains.
“That led us to believe the water supplies would be adequate,” she said but said that the second driest spring since 1895 plus June’s record-shattering heat wave changed all that. “This is a grim reminder that water supplies do face an increasingly uncertain future because of climate change.”
Last week, Inslee declared a state of emergency throughout Washington relating to the growing risk of wildfires, including a statewide prohibition on most outdoor and agricultural burning through Sept. 30.
This summer’s fire season is “likely to be the worst of the last five years,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz. She implored the public to abide by the burn bans.
She said that statewide, there have already been more than 900 fires with an estimated 219 square miles burned, just shy of the total land burned in all of 2019.
“If our new normal brings months without a drop of rain and one extreme heat wave after another, there’s no technology or amount of resources that will be able to match the on-the-ground reality our firefighters are facing,” she said.
Scientists have long warned that the weather will get wilder as the world warms. Climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years. But special calculations are needed to determine how much global warming is to blame, if at all, for a single extreme weather event.
Nearly 60% of the U.S. West is considered in exceptional or extreme drought, the two highest categories, according to the University of Nebraska’s Drought Monitor. That’s the highest percentage in the 20 years the drought monitor has been keeping track. Less than 1% of the West is not in drought or considered abnormally dry, also a record.
More than 95% of Washington is either abnormally dry or in official drought with 52.7% of the state being in severe, extreme or exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought monitor.
Rain and snow in Washington from April to June was third-lowest in 127 years of recordkeeping with only 3.7 inches, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Both NOAA and NASA show soil moisture levels down to some of the lowest recorded levels for much of the West. Most of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho are drier than in 99% of other years.
Knowing Inslee, he’ll probably embargo any water usage east of the Cascades. Without exaggeration, he understands absolutely no limits to his power, especially when he can declare a state of emergency.
Drove by Lake Easton and Lake Kechellus on the way to Seattle on Wednesday. Both of the lakes were full. This is mid-July and most years by this time those lakes have been drawn down quite a lot this time of the year.
Science is not decided by consensus. Scientists don’t vote on what is and what is not scientifically true. Science is proven, to a degree of certainty, by well controlled tests with repeatable results. That makes it impossible to say climate change is a scientific proof. It is just math based on historic data and doesn’t prove anything.
All that without even suggesting that the numbers used in the math are manipulated in myriad ways.
That IS weird...usually it’s lotsa stumps this time of year
Uh oh!! Time to put the masks back on!! You see, the condensation from your breath can actually be used as drinking water!~sarc
The cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett areas are not included
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Basically the Democrat strongholds are excluded - it the rest of the state that has to pay. Particularity the farmers on the East side of the mountains who sacrifice their fruit trees and crops so salmon can get up river, only to have their offspring be killed off by the dams ... which are the reason the runs are so small compared to their historic numbers prior to the dams.
Fires have “started” in Trump voter (succession) territory for two years in a row now.
Go figure.
Besides burning out Trump territory, they also get the benefit of blaming it on globull warming.
Sad fact is that today "science" is opinion. Do tests until you get the answer you want.
He would love to make us stay indoors and wear face diapers.
“Seattle’s year-to-date precipitation is back above normal.” https://www.seattleweatherblog.com/rain-stats/rainfall-2021/
Projected to be 75% below normal. Projected means the Gov pulled the numbers out of his backside.
The average rainfall in Washington is 38” vs. 27” in TX.
Sometimes, TX towns run completely out of water and it has to be trucked in. One would think Washington, with so much more rainfall, would be able to build more water storage for emergency use.
Of course, they could deport their illegals to conserve what water they currently have. Well, there’s an idea for the entire nation.
Don’t get me started on west coast wildfires.
That’s right.
Yes. And worse, for the longest time, government grants are only given to researchers who propose to study some or another field looking for the results than the grant giver wants to “prove”. It is not science at all. That is politics. No different than the Church locking up Galileo until he agreed that the sun revolves around the earth.
The entire west coast is run from an insane asylum.
Seriously, we have the entire pacific ocean. Build some friggin’ desalination plants for Pete’s sake! Fill up the reservoirs. Build water pipelines and aqueducts. Sell the extra water to Arizona and Nevada etc as needed.
But no. We need to spend tens of billions on trains that never get built and suffer shortages, we can’t put out forest fires, we can’t even produce enough electricity to run our cities. Nobody in a position to decide these things gives a crap about the basic necessities of human life.
Also Jay: We need more illegals.
I remember people asking for those plants in the 70's and 80's and liberals complaining that they would take too long to build. 40-50 years later...still nothing.
Yes. And the technology has improved by leaps and bounds in the last decade or so. Israel gets more than 50% of its water from desalination. They have been able to refill the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, and they use the brine from the Desal plants to keep the Dead Sea mineral ratio intact. The membranes that filter out the brine etc from sea water are thin and easily buried in the desert without environmental impact. Some gets put back into the ocean where it is naturally absorbed, circulated and refiltered.
Recently a Korean firm has claimed to have invented a new membrane filter that is even more efficient. I am not up on the specifics but something about it is able to stay dry longer, so it lasts longer.
Absolutely no reason we haven’t invested more in desalination. Yes, California has a few but obviously not nearly enough of them. And again, the technology used in newly constructed plants is much more efficient.
In Washington there is more water than you could ever imagine. Right now there are ponds that fill up in the winter, and still at spring levels of water. I am talking of ponds in the middle of range land. Grass is still green, it rained a little today and the temps are probably 6-10 degrees BELOW normal. We had a shot hot spell, but last night after a sunny day, it was 56 degrees around 9:30 PM with a High of 74.
Your generalizations about “Washington” sound pretty stupid to me. 38” annual precipitation? Try 6.5” where I live. This is also where we experienced 118.5°F a few weeks ago. Today was the first day it topped out BELOW 100F in a long time.
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