Posted on 02/04/2014 6:01:28 AM PST by blam
California: Before And After The Drought, And Why It's Only Going To Get Worse
Zero Hedge
Tyler Durden on 02/03/2014
While the Northeast is blanketed by another winter storm, California has its own, quite inverse, climatic problems in the form of a historic drought which as Bloomberg reports, is forcing farmers in the fertile central valley region to fallow thousands of acres of fields and has left 17 rural towns so low on drinking water that the state may need to start trucking in supplies. It is so bad that water reservoirs are at about 60 percent of average, according to state water data, and falling as rainfall remains at record low levels.
Unfortunately for our California readers, it is going to get worse before it gets better because mountain snowpack is about 12 percent of normal for this time of year. The following picture of California from January and a year ago shows just this dramatic difference, which confirms that there is little hope for the parched state.
Here is the WaPo's Reid Wilson explaining the above visual comparison:
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
I read yesterday that US beef cattle quantities are at 1951 levels.
Lettuce pray
DING....Ding....ding...we have a winner.....
I read some time ago about the same problem in China...
The wind farms suck so much energy out of the natural flow of winds that the local climates are impacted....loss of rain to start with.
Desalination.
Desalinization plants....
Yeah, while Californian’s won’t have anything to drink or bath with, or anything to sustain agriculture, they can at least take comfort in several not-bullet trains to nowhere since billions are being spent for those trains instead of for high-efficiency, self-sufficiency desalination plants like those just finished in Israel which will give that perpetually drought-prone country a water SURPLUS!(Excepting San Diego of course, which has a massive RO plant due to come online in 2016.)
Extreme unemployment plus an extreme drought. Hmmmm, why does this sound familiar?
This is the first I have heard of the negative effect of wind farms on weather/wind patterns. Newton's third law, and all that. And I thought they were only ugly, unreliable and expensive.
Are there any articles or references, other than what can be readily Googled, that lay out this theory? I'd like to read more.
Meanwhile all the swimming-pools is SoCal are full.
Heres some info on desalinization
http://www.pacinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/desalination_report3.pdf
Carlsbad Cal is building a plant which is slated to open in 2016, 16 years after the proposal was approved by the city. Administrative hearings and court processes in which environmental groups got several bites of the apple trying to shoot it down.
What happens to the salt?
The desalination plant typically uses three kilograms of seawater to produce 1 kilogram of fresh water. The extracted salt dissolves in the excess sea water used in the process to form so-called brine. The brine is returned to the sea where it is diluted again in its natural medium.
Can salt be recovered?
The usual desalination processes do not provide for such recovery. Whereas they concentrate seawater 1.5 times, recovery of salt would require seawater to be concentrated ten times. Under such conditions the first crystals would appear in the brine. This would require a lot of energy and cannot be justified on an economic standpoint. Today whenever a large surface area is available close to a sunny seashore, salt pans, which make use of solar energy, are still the best method of salt production.
Hey al gore. If Gorebull warming raises the sea level, then multiple desalinization plants should lower it. So no problem there.
The Carlsbad plant’s maximum output would be up to 10% of the county’s needs. If we build a few more we could take care of Imperial County and keep the agriculture going there.
San Diego is the driest county along the coast in California both in annual rainfall and underground water supply.
California Indians need to start their “rain dance”.
I believe the politicians deliberately shutdown the water in order to lower the land prices for that railroad called the train to nowhere.
Don’t build any new dams and empty the reservoirs of water for the delta smelt. As far as dealinizipation plants go the tree huggers will appose them because of an endangered amoeba.
OH stop already, eat mo chiken.. ;-]
Just think of all the weight folks will lose, there’s always a silver lining .. and who knows what they’ll eventually find on the bottom of Lake Tahoe after it dries up. I been wanting to resurface the pool for years.. may finally get a chance..
Forecast near term here in San Jose, occasional spritzes the next few days.. we had dang near a quarter inch last week.. but need 10-12 more to refill reservoirs that exist and don’t.
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