‘Drought Emergency’ Declared for Entire State of California Proclamation authorizes State Water Board to ban wasteful water uses, boosting conservation efforts. Following the second driest year on record and with near-record low storage in California’s largest reservoirs, Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday issued a proclamation extending the drought emergency statewide. He also further urged Californians to step up their water conservation efforts as the western U.S. faces a potential […] SnowBrains | October 21, 2021 5 Comments
NOAA: Even Small Additional Increases in Greenhouse Gases Will Make Decades-Long “Megadroughts” More Common This post first appeared on climate.gov and was written by Michon Scott and Rebecca Lindsey At the dawn of the 21st century, drought descended on southwestern North America. Two decades later, the drought continues. Recent NOAA-funded research found that even small additional increases in greenhouse gas emissions will make such decades-long “megadroughts” more common. But limiting greenhouse gas emissions will […] Weather WeatherBrains | September 28, 2021 0 Comments
Giant Sequoias Unharmed in California Wildfire For nearly two weeks, a fire has ravaged across the western side of California Sierra Nevada, known as the KNP Complex. Despite burning through California’s Sequoia National Park, there hasn’t been observed damage to any of the 2,000 sequoias in the park, including the largest, most well-known sequoia trees of the bunch. The fire, which was started by lightning strikes, […] Brains Breya Bergom | September 21, 2021 0 Comments
Cloud Seeding: The Future of Drought Management? The Western US is in a severe drought, with many areas experiencing drought-like conditions since the early 2000s. While lots of energy is spent debating what is causing these conditions (human-induced climate change vs. natural climate variations), not as much energy is spent attempting to generate and implement solutions to reverse these drought conditions. This is not good since the threat […] Brains Clay Malott | September 3, 2021 0 Comments
NASA: In July Great Salt Lake, UT, Reached Lowest Level Ever Recorded and Has Kept Dropping This story first appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Michael Carlowicz. In late July 2021, the Great Salt Lake in Utah reached its lowest water level on record, and it has continued dropping since then. On July 23, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gauge at the Saltair boat harbor at the southern end of the lake recorded […] WeatherBrains | August 18, 2021 0 Comments
Flooding and Drought at the Same Time? A Reality for Much of Utah The western U.S. has seen exceptional drought this summer, leading to extremely dry soil. The beginning of the monsoon season has brought heavy rainfall, which brings much-needed moisture. But with it brings flash flooding to areas that are unprepared. According to Glen Merrill, hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, Capitol Reef National Park broke a record […] Brains Joseph Puetz | August 4, 2021 1 Comment
California Faces Water Thieves as Drought Worsens California has been desperate for water as a drought travels through the West Coast state. It is the worst possible time of the year for California, as it’s hotter and drier than ever, which is intensifying the drought altogether. With the dry period California is facing, people are more desperate than ever for water, leaving many resulting in theft to […] Breya Bergom | July 26, 2021 1 Comment
NASA: California and Nevada Are Missing 0.5 to 1 Years’ Worth of Precipitation Since October 2019 Mountain snow is like a bank account for water across the western United States. Snow that falls on the Sierra Nevada in California, the Rocky Mountains, and other ranges becomes a natural reservoir that slowly melts each spring and summer and flows down into the river valleys. The resource managers of western states count on this allowance from nature to […] SnowBrains | July 15, 2021 0 Comments
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