Sunday, February 15, 2009

Drought In California


Drought In California
Originally uploaded by Amicus Telemarkorum.
It's pouring outside right now. Pouring. I hear from my friends who didn't grow up here that it's miserable, it's raining too much. If it weren't a cold winter rain, I'd be dancing outside, probably naked.

This is a fierce drought, we're working our way into the third year of not-enough-water. The snow is shallow in the mountains, and that snow is our biggest reservoir. Folsom Lake, Lake Oroville, Lake Shasta, all are low, marinas are high and dry, because we haven't had enough rain and snow, our water's being shipped all over the state, including to rice farmers in the northern valley (when, in good years, rice growing replicates normal valley flooding, but in dry years, uses a lot of extra water) and to the west side of the lower San Joaquin Valley, where water-hungry crops grow on poor soils in near-desert.

Our population is growing, our climate is drying -- we do not have enough water.

It has been pouring, and the snow levels are low. It can continue to pour. I am fine with it.



More images here.

3 comments:

wintersweet said...

Hear, hear!

Will Pillage For Yarn said...

Let it pour!!

katster said...

Rain, rain, you can stay
'Cause we need you anyway!

(It's pouring outside of my window at this moment.)