If I Complained About Our Weather Would You Listen?

sunset-in-irvine

california-drought-mapFrom a human being day-to-day standpoint, it would seem we moved to an idyllic meteorological utopia. The sun shines nearly every day. It’s hardly ever humid, nor hot, nor cold. Since we arrived in late June it’s been totally dry every day but six!

We really need rain. More importantly, the Sierras need snow! We’re already in a drought with no sign it’s abating.

Most of Southern California uses water from the Sierra Mountains. How it gets here is an engineering marvel just over 100 years old. The water takes a 230 mile gravity powered trip to the LA area.

First_Los_Angeles_Aqueduct_Cascades,_SylmarRight now the Northern Sierras have 7% of their expected snowpack. The rest of the mountains range from 15 to 25% of normal. That’s exceptionally dry.

Snowpack is a great water source. It’s released slowly as temperatures rise. Less wasted runoff. It is mainly dependable, but as this year shows, not totally.

Not only does LA and much of SoCal depend on this distant source¹, so does California’s Central Valley. That affects us all, even outside the West.

Virtually all non-tropical crops are grown in the Central Valley, which is the primary source for a number of food products throughout the United States, including tomatoes, almonds, grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus. – Wikipedia

There’s also the enhanced fire danger when it’s this dry. Fire season should be over in January, but Red Flag Warnings will likely go up late this weekend as the wind blows from the east–Santa Ana winds.

I relish these beautifully salubrious winter days, but I hope we get some rain soon and the Sierras get blanketed in snow. It’s really needed.

There will be little sympathy from those reading this while shivering.

¹ – We use mountain water too, but Irvine has local sources for the vast majority of our needs. Shhh. Don’t tell.

4 thoughts on “If I Complained About Our Weather Would You Listen?”

  1. Why shouldn’t you complain? You have valid points for the area you live in. I have enough friends and family in SoCal to know that no matter where you live, Nature has her own plans. We may have the cold and the snow (sigh) but we don’t have to live with the threat of fires like you get there or mudslides or drought. Well, maybe not drought, we get that sometimes.

  2. It’s all relative! 🙂
    We have snow and sub zero temps giving way to 50 and dense fog today…. you are dry! Mother nature at her finest! That is what makes the weather game so much fun, isn’t it? 🙂

  3. I remember we had so little water one time in So CA, you couldn’t water your lawn, wash your car, or you would be given a ticket. It was terrible. I took the rinse water from our washing machine to water our outdoor plants. They starting building desalinization plants in CA. I have heard in the past that 90% of the water CA receives goes to watering the crops in the San Joaquin Valley.

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