California, the west and drought

Reposting because the Uncategorized shuts down after an hour.

Extreme drought nearly eliminated in California in wake of atmospheric rivers (msn.com)

Beginning Dec 10, the Pineapple Express set up, storm after storm has bullseyed California, Nev and Utah. These “end of world” climate goofballs can’t bring themselves to say that the storms are game changers. What I dislike more than anything is when any data that does not fit their model gets discarded, The Woke who infiltrated Hollywood 1st has steadily leaked (see how I used a water related word there) into even the most sacred for them all, Sports and Science.

I am a geologist. I have a post degree in ground water. When these jokers talk about these storms being game changers but end the article stating, “the ground may be saturated but our largest reservoirs are far from filled, Shasta, Oroville and Folsom all sit from 42%”. They insult all of us. When they say that Lake Powell and Mead are at historic lows and that these storms have not had a big impact on those water basins, and yet the ground went from 2% saturation in Nov to 100% today, you can tell that someone is cookin the books. This is baloney. Last year, all of the West had little runoff, we entered the fall dry but after a winter that started out much like this December, with big storms, the atmospheric river shut off, by April, we were way below normal precipitation AND a dry ground that literally sucked up all the snow pac. This year, even if we did not get another drop of Snow, Notice I said snow, not rain, Our runoff will cause major flooding. and the runoff will fill Caly reservoirs. That same 200% to as much as 430% snow pac that you see in the Sierras, also sits in every mtn range all the way to our Utah and Colorado mtns. We sit at 200% and more. with a 100% saturated ground. Mead and Powell will not fill but they will go up 60 to 80 ft. Those aquafers will not fill because everyone has been cheating for years, taking more water then their allotted shares, but make no mistake, these rains are not only historic, they are game changers.
Next I will Write about how the Woke have baked science to prove their little beliefs that if we don’t change, the world will end. It has to do with a little chemical reaction: CO2+H2O+ Ca.

2 Likes

I am not a geologist, but my understanding is that there are two types of “reservoirs”, Lakes/man-made Reservoirs and underground aquafers. The Ground water (through melting snow or rain) goes into the underground aquafers, while a lot of the melting snow goes into the streams and down into the lakes, etc.

At my cabin up Weber Canyon, since Oct 1st we have had almost 10 feet of snow drop and around 10 inches of water. That is more than we go all last year.

I also know that in Utah they have an aquafer system that moves water from high elevation lakes down to reservoirs/lakes that the State can then access for its water needs.

Feel free to correct me Chris, but that is my understanding of water.

You are correct.
A stream or lake represents the actual aquafer in that immediate area. The classic model would be an inverted peak with the stream as the low point.
Groundwater model - Wikipedia

Simply, a stream could not exist unless the Water Table was present at that point. otherwise, the stream would simply sink into the ground below. We can have False water tables, meaning a gravel sits on top of a impervious formation, such as a clay or even lava formation or a Real water table whereas everything at the stream/lake and below is water saturated.

Enjoyed your knowledge sharing. Look forward to your chemical reaction write-up

Hey Chris do you believe the great Salt Lake will dry up in five years? If it does happen, is that a concern?

O concern. The great Salt lake is a catch basin. If it dries up, Salt Lake would have to deal with dust storm polution, that is just about it.

Even the brine shrimp can dry up and come back if the lake fills. With a water year like this year. all that water ends up in the Great SL. Not going to dry up anytime soon.

California | Drought.gov

The drought is controlled by :
1 heat and high or low pressures in the Pacific, a hotter pacific (el Nino) produces intense monsoons. that is how Nev and Az get most of their moisture. If a high pressure sets up over the West, all of the storms go above or below the 4 driest states in the US. Nev, Utah, S. Cal, Wy and Cl get left out.
2 the jet stream For the past month, the JS parked over Cal. the water totals are historic. If the Jet shifts north, Caly is completely left out. Climatologists are BAFFLED, this is a la Nina year, cooler pacific (so less rain). also there should be a big high pressure parked over Nv-Utah in a La Nina. No scientist could of predicted what is happening over the past month.
3 cosmic activity…sun flareups=more heat, more cosmic dust acts as a filter=cooler planet.

Woke scientists say that because of CO2s, the planet is warming therefore, more melting cap ice and our oceans rise. Dan the science man gave us a dooms day clock of 20 years before south beach would be under water…back in the 1980s. Today, not only is so. beach high and dry but real estate is 100,000% higher.

The Coolidge reservoir near where we live had gotten down to 20,000 acre feet of water in the summer (very, very low). After an extremely wet fall and winter (and more important — good snow in the mountains), it is currently at 200,000 acre feet. While this is fantastic, its capacity is 900,000, so more rain and snow pack would be even better.

I don’t think that global warming is as much of a culprit as population growth by region. Arizona and Las Vegas simply have so much growth that they are using water faster than it can recharge via rainfall and snow melt. Farmer tell me that the water table used to be much shallower decades ago. We didn’t hit water until 600 ft. when we sunk our well, and we put the pump at 800 ft. in case it continued dropping (which it is).

Major problem throughout the West. Az is probably this biggest culprit. The Phoenix area water table has dropped 40+ feet with 0 chance of recharge. Ag is the biggest consumer of water. I guess they could choose to quit growing stuff. We in the West also have to adopt less water usage customs. Do away with big lawns, adapt rain gutter to Cistern, water only at night. Millions of common sense ways to preserve water.

Why not build some covered canals from Canada to the West?

All I know is that there is more snow up by my cabin (Summit County) than we had all last year.

Right now, there is close to 4 feet of snow at the cabin, with a total of 130 inches for the current year (almost 10 inches of water).

As we sit, Utah averages 230% of normal water content in very wet snow, ruminants of the atmospheric river from California.

There is a catch, last year we had a similar start in Dec but very dry from Jan-April. Ended with 50% of normal…right now, without a single drop of precipitation, Utah would grade out at 90% at the end of April, our snow pack year.

Well now, isn’t that a distant memory? I talked to the scientist in April, PHD out of UVU, who is over the entire “Save the Great Salt Lake” movement. He was flying a drone over Hobble Cr, dumping into Utah Lake. I asked him the question of, “Does it matter if the Great Salt Lake goes dry”? His response was alarming to me. “We have to dump as much water into the GSL as soon as Possible”. I asked, Why??

“It would be catastrophic”. I again asked, “Explain what that means”? His answer was, “If it dries up the dust and heavy metals, the environment, yada yada”. So I am a geologist, my answer was, GSL has dried up many times, it is a catch basin with no escape except through evaporation. Whether we use the water 100 times or just send it downstream, the net is the exact same thing?? Right? Silence.

Now we sit on more water then we know what to do with, problem solved. People just want their names in the paper and to get grant money, carry on.

1 Like

The one thing I was surprised that your friend did not mention is the effect the GSL has on the weather around the Wasatch Front.

The fuller lake is, the more evaporation happens, which creates more rain, snow, etc fall into the valley.

The affect will drop more snow which then will produce more water that goes into the underground aquafers, steams and some lakes which will return to the GSL and this cycle goes on and on.

Glad You Asked: Utah’s Hydrologic Cycle - Utah Geological Survey

The biggest reason for the GSL shrinking is the fact that we are diverting more and more of the water for housing projects, new cities, etc.

That is a solid point, more so then any I posted on. A fuller GSL does change climate in SLC and surroundings. I would argue that diverting water in canals and even watering you lawns does replenish aquafers. Fun stuff during a boring summer. Water Water Everywhere.

It’s all Climate Change’s fault. We have to stop baking pizza in wood ovens! That’s all there is to it. :wink:

Just don’t do it during February in Utah, our inversion is horrible during that time. :open_mouth:

Personally, I think Climate change is real, but I am not in the camp where the idiots are telling farmers to stop raising cows.

I thnk we have the responsibility for mother earth, one of the greatest examples of what I am about is looking at the Native Americans views during the 1800’s about the earth and creatures that feed them.

Of course climate change is real. The climate is and has always changed. I’m just not buying into the man-made reason that will cause massive flooding and the end of the world. The sun is the reason for much of the change.
We have caused issues when it comes to pollution. We have that responsibility. The problem is the U.S. has made progress while the rest of the world hasn’t and never will.

There are some things that we do that can help cause issues in the Climate change.

In the West, we are in loved with our cars or trucks (me included).

Where I live here in Utah, during the winter we have a severe inversion (cold air on bottom, warm air on top) that when people driving will put a lot of extra pollutants into the air.

Our Governor has worked with our local State environment agency that if the inversion is expected to be bad (bad air for sensitive people), he asks the State employees to work from home to avoid the extra pollutants in the air. Which I support 100%

I am not into the “electric car” rage, because I ask the following questions:

  1. Where does 80-95% of the electricity comes from? Coal powered plants
  2. What happens as in California when too many people “charge up” at the same time?
  3. What happens to the car batteries (which is toxic and cannot be reused) when they are down? Talk about Toxic waste catastrophe waiting to happen!

There are some of the other far left ideas that are equally bad as the electric car being forced down our throats.

I’m with you on the electric cars. When the batteries die, they will be thrown out polluting the ground as well.
I understand the pollution. What I don’t get is why that affects and how it affects the climate change of heating up the earth? And, even if the U.S. didn’t do any polluting, China, India and the rest of the world continue to increase their polluting and cause most of the additional CO2 now. And, is it bad that there is more CO2 anyways? It causes more rain which causes more plant and animal life. When did that become bad?