The Official Drought Thread

[Jeff Lebowski]

Come on. We don't need two drought threads. Merge ahead.

[Uncle Ted]

Rain barrels... http://www.mercurynews.com/home-gard...n-rain-barrels

I need to install that "first flush diverter" thing to keep the bird crap out. That is a good idea.

[dabrockster]

Effects of the Cali drought: Photos of Before and After

Here is an article that provides photos of places where you can see the major impact of the drought in California. WOW...

http://www.king5.com/picture-gallery...ught/14593979/

[Jeff Lebowski]

Top ten US cities running out of water. All ten are in California. Bakersfield at the highest risk.

http://247wallst.com/special-report/...-out-of-water/

[pellegrino]

Even better, MOVE TSA to the back country trails and solve two problems in one fell swoop.

[FMCoug]

They should go TSA on all back country visitors by requiring pack inspection before departure and then patrol popular trails and campsites vigorously. You'd think the extra funds put into prevention would be worth it.

Even better, MOVE TSA to the back country trails and solve two problems in one fell swoop.

[Soccermom]

They should go TSA on all back country visitors by requiring pack inspection before departure and then patrol popular trails and campsites vigorously. You'd think the extra funds put into prevention would be worth it.

Yup, an ounce of prevention.

On another note, my town has really high water bills because it includes an assessment to cover the water treatment facility--town was built from the ground up right with the water treatment facility. So now that we are in a drought and we have restrictions, some people are saying "eff it, I pay enough in taxes. I'm gonna do whatever I want." And whatever they want includes washing leaves away with a hose when they could easily be raked. Just bugs me. I mean I hate taxes, but anyone who moved here was made aware of the higher cost of living in a town built on a cow pasture. And since no businesses are out here, it isn't like anybody needs to be here.

I hear a storm is coming, though. Doing a dance and hoping for a downpour!

[pellegrino]

Oh, they are strict, but with the drought alone, it doesn't take much. And unfortunately some people just don't care and do stupid things.

They should go TSA on all back country visitors by requiring pack inspection before departure and then patrol popular trails and campsites vigorously. You'd think the extra funds put into prevention would be worth it.

[Paperback Writer]

From the local news, North Texas has the 5th worst year-to-date start with rain (dating back to the late 1800's) . Water rationing will probably be even more stricker. Right now, we can only water lawns twice a month. That won't be enough when the long, hot Texas summer arrives.

[Soccermom]

You are going to be breathing smoke all summer. Count on it.

Gonna be a fun summer for pregnant me. . .LOL. Heat, drought, smoke. . .yippee.

[Soccermom]

Doesn't Yosemite prohibit open fires during the summer under conditions like these? You'd think that with the drought they're facing they'd get pretty strict and very active in preventing visitors from lighting fires in any situation.

Oh, they are strict, but with the drought alone, it doesn't take much. And unfortunately some people just don't care and do stupid things.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I live on the border of San Joaquin and Alameda County. I'm very nervous about the drought here. I feel bad for our firefighters because I fear they may be extremely busy this summer. I don't wanna see any more fires at Yosemite dangit. But with the drought added to the stupidity of people, I fear we may see a lot of smoke.

You are going to be breathing smoke all summer. Count on it.

[pellegrino]

I live on the border of San Joaquin and Alameda County. I'm very nervous about the drought here. I feel bad for our firefighters because I fear they may be extremely busy this summer. I don't wanna see any more fires at Yosemite dangit. But with the drought added to the stupidity of people, I fear we may see a lot of smoke.

Doesn't Yosemite prohibit open fires during the summer under conditions like these? You'd think that with the drought they're facing they'd get pretty strict and very active in preventing visitors from lighting fires in any situation.

[Pelado]

UPDATE: After a very wet February, Utah is now up to 83% of normal snowpack. California has gone from disaster-of-biblical-proportions to catastrophic.

I found a very cool website with up-to-date data in case anyone is interested.

http://cires.colorado.edu/~aslater/SNOW/

Click on the state in one of the menus on the left and then click on one of the dots to see snow depth vs time at selected stations. For example, here is one from Utah:



The red line is current year. The other lines are from all other years. The mean is somewhere in the middle. This is what a typical california station looks like:



Notice the little bump in Feb/Mar? That helps, but still unbelievably low.

If you click on the Seasonal Rank Status link, you get a color map of water storage vs location. As you can see, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado are in great shape. Cali and southern Oregon is a disaster.

Expect food prices to be very high this year.

A bunch of stations in California and southern Oregon are at 0% of mean. That can't be good.

[Soccermom]

I live on the border of San Joaquin and Alameda County. I'm very nervous about the drought here. I feel bad for our firefighters because I fear they may be extremely busy this summer. I don't wanna see any more fires at Yosemite dangit. But with the drought added to the stupidity of people, I fear we may see a lot of smoke.