As you know the snow came and much of it went. Enjoy!
Rain
- Thread starter Stonedfish
- Start date
And it was neither foolish nor a waste to be concerned about drought this past February and March, given how things were shaping up, or not building up, as the case may be. In fact, for people whose jobs include hydrology and water management, turns out that concern was super important to decision making, with lots of people affected by it.
Anxiety won't ever change real world conditions. That was my original point. Be resilient, like the natural world! Better to be responsive than reactive, always
. Washington will be fine this year. Looks rough in Oregon Cascades for sure. Colorado River basin had a very poor snow year too. Such is life in the West.
If your data on drought was heavily influenced by reading Cliff Mass, he seems particularly interested in reservoir levels, which are obviously heavily influenced by anticipation of drought by reservoir managers. Ie the arguments he has about plenty of water are often circular and bizarre. They are particularly limiting in understanding the reservoir effects of snow basin diminishment on forests, rivers and fisheries (eg water temps) that are increasingly stressed with ratcheting up of temperature. I read his stuff, it's well written and his data compelling, on the other hand, I have plenty of skepticism re what he chooses to present and am certainly aware that there's more than a few weather guys in town let alone across the US and world that hold very different ideas about climate effects in the PNW and beyond.
I have a hard time believing the severity of heat domes, polar vortices and ocean temps hasn't changed markedly since 2000.
2014-16 blob years were a big wake up call and for anyone interested in cold water, forests, groundwater and biomass growth/farming/irrigation. As for me, certainly not looking forward to "strongest El Nino ever"
Last edited:
Well, if you want to get all Buddhist about it, I won’t argue.
And the (Far) East.
Around Central Sound, there’s a sort of marked threshold for a number of data plots right at 2015.
I found his reliance on reservoir levels to be a little bizarre and certainly not any indication of drought potentiality. Reservoirs being full in March does not tell us anything other than reservoirs were full. What was the outflow then and through the winter? With little snowpack, outflow would have been restricted to fill the reservoirs (with high snowpack, outflow will be pushed to ensure there is capacity for the snowmelt). With irrigation season, those reservoirs are now drawing down, with little inflow to help keep levels higher longer. While he might write well, and to some convincingly, his arguments and ad hominem attacks on the press ring hollow to me.
wanderingrichard
Life of the Party
Not soggy enough. State just declared an emergency drought situation
I appreciate Cliff Mass' objectivity relative to the sensational nature of a lot of media reporting. However, his personal Venn Diagram of hydrologic relevance omits parameters that are just as important as the ones he includes. He does seem focused on reservoirs. Sure, reservoirs are important, but they are not every water users source of water. Yesterday he extolled California's abundant supply of reservoirs and how they captured the heavy rain precip they had last fall and will refill with this spring's more limited snowmelt. That works for Washington's irrigators in the Yakima basin and those who pump from the Columbia. But there's a lot of central WA irrigators in the Wenatchee, Entiat, and Methow basins who rely on run-of-river flows in real time. A low snow pack invariably pits irrigation interests against ESA fish and wildlife needs, a parameter that Mass always seems to over look.
Mass said WA needs more reservoirs. He's an expert in meteorology, and he should extend his interest to some basic geomorphology. We can only build reservoirs where the shape of the ground includes a suitable river valley that can be dammed and flooded (which includes its own litany of environmental impacts, like fish and wildlife losses). Pretty much every suitable dam site in WA state is already dammed, and any remaining ones will be fought tooth and nail to protect. Maybe Mass thinks WA should construct massive steel water tanks and pump water into them (energy cost) to combat water shortages. Sometimes when I hear him, I think he just likes to stir shit up.
Dry here, but it’s supposed to rain today. I’m looking forward to a break from watering since I top seeded my back lawn last week.
Free water, I’ll take as much as I can get.
SF
Free water, I’ll take as much as I can get.
SF
The sound of drops woke me from blissful slumber so I could take down the hammock and put away the cushy yard furniture.Dry here, but it’s supposed to rain today. I’m looking forward to a break from watering since I top seeded my back lawn last week.
Free water, I’ll take as much as I can get.
SF
It’ll probably be up there soon.
I’m not so sure about either of those statements. With the state’s increasing water supply shortages, the cost/benefit matrices (including economics) start to recalibrate. Potential storage sites on systems that did not previously face shortages may start to “pencil out.”
Never say never, so it's possible. However, I think like with energy, water conservation will always be more cost effective than developing additional or new supplies. For example, Bureau of Reclamation and Yakima Valley irrigators have been looking at Black Canyon (a pump storage option) for the better part of three decades, but they just can't make it pencil out. And BOR always loves a new project - grow the empire, a bureaucrat's dream.
In basins where Ag is the predominate current and future water user, like the Yakima, then conservation can make a substantive difference. In basins that have historically relied on snowmelt for a good part of the hydrology and where municipal supply plays a bigger role relative to Ag water demands, conservation, on a per capita basis and in the face of a growing population (you know, like around Puget Sound) can only do so much, and not even close enough to make a significant difference compared to what climate change is doing in terms of losing snowpacks.
I hate lawns...Dry here, but it’s supposed to rain today. I’m looking forward to a break from watering since I top seeded my back lawn last week.
Free water, I’ll take as much as I can get.
SF
FinLuver
Native Oregonian…1846
I did the same last week tooDry here, but it’s supposed to rain today. I’m looking forward to a break from watering since I top seeded my back lawn last week.
Free water, I’ll take as much as I can get.
SF
there's rain...and than there's rain
"Last month, Hawaii was hit by back-to-back Kona low storms separated by just a few days, and the state was inundated with more than 2 trillion gallons of water. Areas such as Haleakala received over 36 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, according to Thomas Giambelluca of the Hawaii Climate Data Portal, far exceeding what is typically expected in a once-in-a-1,000-year storm event."
"Last month, Hawaii was hit by back-to-back Kona low storms separated by just a few days, and the state was inundated with more than 2 trillion gallons of water. Areas such as Haleakala received over 36 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, according to Thomas Giambelluca of the Hawaii Climate Data Portal, far exceeding what is typically expected in a once-in-a-1,000-year storm event."