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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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May 14, 2014 - 10:27pm PT
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Rainfall on the Skyline Ridge 1 mile south of Castle Rock
Aug through July
2011-2012 24"
-2013 27"
-14May2014 15"
Prior to the past three seasons, the rainfall has averaged about 40"
Likelihood of significant rain between now and June 30 is low even in a good year.
On June 9 2012 we got 2/3". The only rain we got from through July
I won't be surprised if 15" is all we get this season.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 15, 2014 - 11:01am PT
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so the LA Times reports that a new study of groundwater and earthquakes in the Central Valley suggests that groundwater pumping is triggering earthquakes.
Haven't read the study yet (the papers never link them), but the story is here:
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-80204882/
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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May 15, 2014 - 11:09am PT
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It's nice to be outside in the evenings and not feed the mosquitoes. I don't think I've been bit once this year.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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May 15, 2014 - 04:11pm PT
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Few mosquitos indeed. Also very few birds.
Coyotes, foxes and snakes are coming right up to our houses searching for food.
I'll take the mosquitos.
Not that I have a problem with coyotes, foxes and snakes, it's an indication of their lack of food.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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May 18, 2014 - 03:29pm PT
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A passage from Half Broke Horses, a novel by Jeannette Walls.
To live in a place where water was so scarce made the rare moments like this—when the heavens poured forth an abundance of water and the hard earth softened and turned lush and green—seem magical, almost miraculous. The kids had an irresistible urge to get out and dance in the rain, and I always let them go and sometimes joined them myself, all of us prancing around, arms upraised, as the water beat down on our faces, plastering our hair and soaking our clothes.
Afterward, we all ran down to the draws that led to the . . . dam, and once the first rush of water had passed, I’d let the kids strip off their clothes and go swimming. They’d stay out there for hours, paddling around, pretending to be alligators or dolphins or hippopotamuses. They had a heck of a time playing in the rain puddles, too. When the water sank through the soil and all that was left was mud, they’d keep playing, rolling around until everything but the whites of their eyes and their teeth was plastered with mud. Once the mud dried, which didn’t take long, it sheared right off, leaving them pretty clean, and they got back into their clothes.
Sometimes over supper, when Jim got home after a storm, the kids would describe their escapades in the water and mud, and Jim would recount his vast store of water lore and water history. Once the world was nothing but water, he explained, and you wouldn’t think it to look at us, but human beings were mostly water. The miraculous thing about water, he said, was that I never came to an end. All the water in the earth had been here since the beginning of time, it had just moved around from rivers and lakes and oceans to clouds and rain and puddles and then sunk through the soil to underground streams, to springs and wells, where it got drunk by people and animals and went back to rivers and lakes and oceans.
The water you kids were playing in, he said had probably been to Africa and the North Pole. Genghis Khan or Saint Peter or even Jesus himself might have drunk it. Cleopatra might have bathed in it. Crazy Horse might have watered his pony with it. Sometimes water was liquid. Sometimes it was rock hard—ice. Sometimes it was soft—snow. Sometimes it was visible but weightless—clouds. And sometimes it was completely invisible—vapor--floating up into the sky like the souls of dead people. There was nothing like water in the world, Jim said. It made the desert bloom but also turned rich bottomland into swamp. With it, we’d die, but it could also kill us, and that was why we loved it, even craved it, but also feared it. Never take water for granted, Jim said. Always cherish it. Always beware of it.
(I could say some of the same thing about love. Is water a sign of the love of a creator? Or was he just practical?)
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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May 18, 2014 - 10:49pm PT
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Castle Rock falls yesterday.
Just a splash of water. Like the end of October in a dry year.
(for those who don't know, the Bay area gets virtually no rain from end of May to late October.
We might get 1 or two summer thunderstorms. Which are usually insignificant compared to even a medium Rocky Mtns thunderstorm
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nita
Social climber
chica de chico, I don't claim to be a daisy.
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May 20, 2014 - 02:07pm PT
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It wasn't much, but it was something.....enough rain in Chico.. to water my plants and have a lightning & thunder show.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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May 20, 2014 - 03:53pm PT
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so the LA Times reports that a new study of groundwater and earthquakes in the Central Valley suggests that groundwater pumping is triggering earthquakes.
I was troubleshooting a well up in Big Bear yesterday, kept turning pump on and off. Thought someone backed into the pump house.
OOPS!
LOL
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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May 27, 2014 - 09:37pm PT
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And now this:
http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/ag-environment/as-central-valley-fog-disappears-fruit-nut-crops-decline/
Which is what I have been saying since the early eighties when I moved back to the fog-hole which is fast becoming a smog-bog.
It brings to mind a trip to Yosemite Valley in 1970, in late winter, with the Rev, myself, and two of the Flames, Mark McAllister and John Yeates.
Yeates' dad owned a car rental franchise and needed four cars driven somewhere from Fresno. John picked us all up in Merced in one of his dad's rentals, one which was being sent back to the original franchise.
We finished our climbing on Sunday afternoon, drove to Fresno, picked up the other three vehicles and took off up the 99 and the 152 in then-typical dense fog.
We stayed in convoy, at night, drove at 60 steady, and no worries because we had a system: two taps on the brakes from the lead car told us he was slowing down, while a series of high beam flashes indicated, "I'm speeding back up."
John took another vehicle bound for Merced when we got to wherever (San Jose, I think, maybe SF) and drove the Rev and I and Mark to Monterey, where we lived--good old Apathy House on 16th in Pacific Grove. Then he and Mark boogied on back to Merced that morning.
We got to get PAID as well as have transportation.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Interesting article in the LA Times today about the water woes of Catalina Island.
They're talking about making restaurants use paper plates and plastic cutlery
cause they don't can't spare the water to wash dishes. They should also
mandate the distribution of condoms with the plastic spoons.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Pass the pistachios, please.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Interesting how the actual desert in California isn't hit as hard as where a lot of the food's grown.
Of special interest to me is the Avocado Belt, the coast from OC to San Diego. Prices on the rise?
Rainy season's coming up in the desert, and each year more of it has made it over to my side of Mt San Gorgonio. I didn't measure, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't rain here more last summer than it did last winter.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jun 10, 2014 - 06:59pm PT
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DMT wrote:
But Del Puerto???? As in Del Puerto CANYON? Well, it doesn't get much drier in the north state, except for maybe Panoche.
here's a picture to put with the place:
(not this year though)
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jun 10, 2014 - 07:07pm PT
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Big Sur last week.
All the mountains are yellow-brown.
Tioga Pass on Sunday.
Kona crest has nice snow. Dana Couloir looked to be in fine nick in the binoculars. You'd want to be finished by 8 AM
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looks easy from here
climber
Ben Lomond, CA
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Jun 11, 2014 - 11:02am PT
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Lake McClure looking more like the McClure River at the Hwy 49 bridge:
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Jun 17, 2014 - 09:21am PT
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did a quick tour yesterday through some of the small ranches in the foothills. unreal dry for june. and empty-- had to go miles to see a single cow. place after place has sold off everything except breeding stock.
on the 120 westbound later, i could see thousands of new acres of almonds going in-- probably at least a thousand acres more than was there just two weeks ago. those f*#kers are racing to drain the aquifer before their neighbors do.
then they're going to demand another bailout.
dollar to a donut this drought wipes out a huge chunk of the best small ranchers and farmers, and then we bailout the biggest corporate ones.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jun 17, 2014 - 01:23pm PT
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From Malemute's posted link:
Factoring in the costs of the current plant, Orange County will soon produce twice as much water for less than one-third of the average cost of San Diego’s new desalination plant.
Reusing water that’s already been pumped to Orange County over mountain ranges also uses half the energy as importing new water.
It takes years and years for people to accept things that for centuries have been tabbo or anathema. It is also a fact that Californians generally feel entitled, so that needs to be factored as well. I'm talking about folks who've lived here for years, not the droves of newer immigrants from all over the world with slightly lower expectations...
This state is far from being a golden state, Dingus. That is the rankest propaganda, a slogan, a nickname, a motto, they all do the same, to reinforce doubt. I'm SURE they were all volunteers in Kentucky, too.
So this coming election,
You cannot afford to be fickle.
Elect Goldfinger, the Man With the Midas Touch.
He will magically stick his finger in the dike.
All will then be cool. And water relief will not have to rely on just wells no more.
The earth will stop subsiding because we have introduced a yeast into the aquifer over the years, which is going to reach a huge growth potential and bloat the surface of the ground upwards, causing massive problems with quaking earth, sinkholes appearing, and a terrible stench through the whole state, ruining everything and sending everyone packing.
First the tide rushes in at the end of the day.
San Diego is thankful, has something to say,
"Peace."
EDIT: Yes, that's the right word. "Tabbo." That's mus-speak for veboten, based on distrust of tabbies.
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