Posted on 04/27/2006 7:46:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO
Sierra Nevada snow levels are far above normal as warm temperatures hit California and flood-wary residents wait for the spring runoff, but officials predicted Thursday that reservoirs would be able to handle the extra water.
The state Department of Water Resources said its last check of the 2005-2006 rainy season found a Sierra snowpack that averaged 180 percent of normal water content for this time of year.
Levels were higher than that average in the northern Sierra 207 percent of normal and lower in the central and southern parts of the mountain range 169 percent and 175 percent, respectively.
Snowpack depth ranged from 5 1/2 feet to about 8 1/2 feet at four spots near Highway 50.
Department officials said they were coordinating efforts with federal agencies and local irrigation districts to ensure reservoirs could handle the runoff without increasing downstream flows that could lead to flooding.
Operators are confident the reservoirs will be able to handle the snow melt without increasing flows more than they already have been, said Arthur Hinojosa, head of the department's hydrology branch.
Heavy snowfall in the mountains and rain in the lowlands have already triggered some flooding and raised concerns about the condition of Central Valley levees.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in February, a step administration officials said would speed up repairs to 24 flood-prone spots in the extensive levee system.
State legislators also have been trying to put together a package of public works bonds that almost certainly would include several billion dollars for levee repairs, and Schwarzenegger has criticized the federal government's failure to provide money for levee upgrades.
But Frank Gehrke, head of the snow survey, said the snow melt shouldn't exacerbate levee problems.
"I think the flows certainly are going to drop off from what we were experiencing earlier in the month," he said. "The snow, once it starts to melt, doesn't produce nearly the runoff that a big rainstorm does.
"If we get a big rainstorm sometime during May that would obviously change the whole equation."
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On the Net:
Department of Water Resources: http://www.water.ca.gov
83 in my backyard this afternoon in San Jose, warmer tomorrow
All that d@mned global warming causing too much snow.
Been a crazy winter in the Sierras. Pretty much no snow on the western side where our cabin is until January. Then snowstorm after snowstorm hit. We still have a snowpack of over 5 feet! Snowmobiling in May!!
That would be Fun!
Auburn Dam: The Question Remains
http://www.sacunion.com/pages/sacramento/articles/auburn_dam_the_question_remains
The Associated Press
Published: October 21, 2005
In 1986, we had big snows like this and then in late April, it started to warm up.
Unfortunately, as it warmed up, the snow started melting.
Then a big rain front moved in and proceeded to drop heavy rain for about a week, not only saturating Sacramento, but melting the snow at a much faster rate.
Sacramento was only a single gopher hole away from beating New Orleans to the "Major city gets wiped out by a flood" race.
The problem with the levees, they are made of silt. Gophers love the soft dirt and when they penetrate into each others holes, and the water starts flowing, it opens up and away it goes.
No...all that snow is the Earth's plea for help, and the melting is, well, global warming, caused by greedy capitalists.
See, it's science.
Trust us.
Don't tell Al Gore.
THE AUBURN DAM
Fact and Fiction
http://www.house.gov/doolittle/isaubfac.htm
House Republican Conference Secretary John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville)
LOL!
Yeah, that's what my ex-husband once said (ok, it was "Trust me."). After 13 years (I can occasionally be a little slow on the uptake), I said, "Gee. Could it be he's full of sh!t?" Hasn't taken me quite that long this time. I just wonder how many of these super-green tree-hugger types have ever taken a hardcore math or science course. Oh, wait. That would require work and thinking! Silly me! What was I thinking?!
Yup.
Even with classes, it's the spin that doesn't face the compelling conclusions.
Science only presents, but people interpret...i.e...B.S. for the furtherance of their own personal agenda.....especially these days, it would seem. We buy erroneous conclusions for personal reasons, largely to "fit in."
LOGIC is the training which people need most. If that were to be required, perhaps CIVICS would be next. I dream, but i refuse to do otherwise, lest I lose my bearings too.
Deceiving one's self is an ugly thing. Once one does that, selling a passenger ticket to someone else is just salesmanship and tenacity, and such favors get passed on down the line.
Hey, this could be bad for my blood pressure! I had better get to a Kitty Caption or Banglist thread pronto!
OoooooooWoooooooWow!!! I love it when you guys talk dirty like dat!!!
Actually though... It's really three words: Finish Auburn Dam!!!
When they talk about a possible 4 billion to build it, they're talking about a full fledge multi-purpose creature, rather than a flood control with features that reduce the eventual expense of converting it to a multi-purpose unit! PLUS... The damn thing is already 1/3rd finished in that the surface has already been grouted up and that's worth at least a billion, right there!
So it will NOT be $4 Billion to complete the flood control aspect as all the "anti-dam" nattering naybobs of negativity keep carping!!!
As the snow increases each year, the next glacial age will soon follow.
Yes... That was the infamous "Pinaple Express!" Folsom reservior was way too full, way too fast and even with everything wide open, they couldn't let it out fast enough! As fast as they were letting it out, it was threatening every levee. The storm on the satalite photos stretched all the way to New Zealand it seemed.
The Coffer Dam at the abandoned Auburn Dam site got it's spillway clogged with timber, etc. and started filling the reservoir site even though it wasn't supposed to. Then, after it got state Highway 49 all softened up and soaked, the coffer dam broke, sucking Hwy 49 right down into Folsom Reservoir.
That, my FRiends, was our giant sucking sound on the west's steepest, fastest, shortest watershed aimed at the heart of the state crapitol. It almost got flushed THEN!!!
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