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California: Before And After The Drought, And Why It's Only Going To Get Worse
Zero Hedge ^ | 2-4-2014 | Tyler Durden

Posted on 02/04/2014 6:01:28 AM PST by blam

California: Before And After The Drought, And Why It's Only Going To Get Worse

Zero Hedge
Tyler Durden on 02/03/2014

While the Northeast is blanketed by another winter storm, California has its own, quite inverse, climatic problems in the form of a historic drought which as Bloomberg reports, is forcing farmers in the fertile central valley region to fallow thousands of acres of fields and has left 17 rural towns so low on drinking water that the state may need to start trucking in supplies. It is so bad that water reservoirs are at about 60 percent of average, according to state water data, and falling as rainfall remains at record low levels.

Unfortunately for our California readers, it is going to get worse before it gets better because mountain snowpack is about 12 percent of normal for this time of year. The following picture of California from January and a year ago shows just this dramatic difference, which confirms that there is little hope for the parched state.

Here is the WaPo's Reid Wilson explaining the above visual comparison:

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: crops; drought; shortages; westernstates
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Most of the western states are suffering from drought condition, expect food prices to skyrocket.

I read yesterday that US beef cattle quantities are at 1951 levels.

1 posted on 02/04/2014 6:01:28 AM PST by blam
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To: blam
rant on/
"it's all the snail darter's fault, if they would just bred, like the Arabs
& our American/Mehcans welfare class..this crisis would be solved."
/rant off
2 posted on 02/04/2014 6:14:27 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Caligula / 0'Reid / 0'Pelosi)
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To: blam

Lettuce pray


3 posted on 02/04/2014 6:14:56 AM PST by babble-on
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To: blam
I blame all those wind farms and wind generators, for disturbing the nature wind flow over the Western states.....mankind, can not extract energy from the wind without consequences....there are thousands installed in CA and TX....
4 posted on 02/04/2014 6:15:39 AM PST by B212
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To: blam
Gov. Jerry Brown Calls Congress Drought Bill ‘Unwelcome And Divisive’
5 posted on 02/04/2014 6:16:46 AM PST by blam
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To: B212
I blame all those wind farms and wind generators, for disturbing the nature wind flow over the Western states.

DING....Ding....ding...we have a winner.....

I read some time ago about the same problem in China...

The wind farms suck so much energy out of the natural flow of winds that the local climates are impacted....loss of rain to start with.

6 posted on 02/04/2014 6:25:03 AM PST by spokeshave (OMG.......Schadenfreude overload is not covered under Obamacare :-()
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To: blam

Desalination.


7 posted on 02/04/2014 6:29:02 AM PST by TheDon (Inside Every Liberal is a Totalitarian Screaming to Get Out.)
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To: spokeshave

Desalinization plants....


8 posted on 02/04/2014 6:30:18 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Insurgent Conservative)
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To: blam
Grapes of Wrath II: Millions of poor Calies drive to moist states like Oklahoma to restart their farms and Thai-Mozambique fusion yogurt stands.
9 posted on 02/04/2014 6:36:13 AM PST by KarlInOhio (Republican amnesty supporters don't care whether their own homes are called mansions or haciendas.)
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To: blam

Yeah, while Californian’s won’t have anything to drink or bath with, or anything to sustain agriculture, they can at least take comfort in several not-bullet trains to nowhere since billions are being spent for those trains instead of for high-efficiency, self-sufficiency desalination plants like those just finished in Israel which will give that perpetually drought-prone country a water SURPLUS!(Excepting San Diego of course, which has a massive RO plant due to come online in 2016.)


10 posted on 02/04/2014 6:36:46 AM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: blam

Extreme unemployment plus an extreme drought. Hmmmm, why does this sound familiar?


11 posted on 02/04/2014 6:41:53 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: B212
QUOTE: I blame all those wind farms and wind generators, for disturbing the nature wind flow over the Western states.

This is the first I have heard of the negative effect of wind farms on weather/wind patterns. Newton's third law, and all that. And I thought they were only ugly, unreliable and expensive.

Are there any articles or references, other than what can be readily Googled, that lay out this theory? I'd like to read more.

12 posted on 02/04/2014 6:42:18 AM PST by jimmyray
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To: blam

Meanwhile all the swimming-pools is SoCal are full.


13 posted on 02/04/2014 6:45:58 AM PST by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: EQAndyBuzz; TheDon

Here’s some info on desalinization

http://www.pacinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/desalination_report3.pdf

Carlsbad Cal is building a plant which is slated to open in 2016, 16 years after the proposal was approved by the city. Administrative hearings and court processes in which environmental groups got several bites of the apple trying to shoot it down.

What happens to the salt?

The desalination plant typically uses three kilograms of seawater to produce 1 kilogram of fresh water. The extracted salt dissolves in the excess sea water used in the process to form so-called brine. The brine is returned to the sea where it is diluted again in its natural medium.
Can salt be recovered?

The usual desalination processes do not provide for such recovery. Whereas they concentrate seawater 1.5 times, recovery of salt would require seawater to be concentrated ten times. Under such conditions the first crystals would appear in the brine. This would require a lot of energy and cannot be justified on an economic standpoint. Today whenever a large surface area is available close to a sunny seashore, salt pans, which make use of solar energy, are still the best method of salt production.


14 posted on 02/04/2014 6:52:03 AM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: morphing libertarian

Hey al gore. If Gorebull warming raises the sea level, then multiple desalinization plants should lower it. So no problem there.


15 posted on 02/04/2014 6:53:27 AM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: morphing libertarian

The Carlsbad plant’s maximum output would be up to 10% of the county’s needs. If we build a few more we could take care of Imperial County and keep the agriculture going there.

San Diego is the driest county along the coast in California both in annual rainfall and underground water supply.


16 posted on 02/04/2014 6:57:22 AM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: blam

California Indians need to start their “rain dance”.


17 posted on 02/04/2014 7:40:59 AM PST by windcliff
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To: blam

I believe the politicians deliberately shutdown the water in order to lower the land prices for that railroad called the train to nowhere.


18 posted on 02/04/2014 9:07:45 AM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: blam

Don’t build any new dams and empty the reservoirs of water for the delta smelt. As far as dealinizipation plants go the tree huggers will appose them because of an endangered amoeba.


19 posted on 02/04/2014 9:22:51 AM PST by Organic Panic
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To: blam

OH stop already, eat mo chiken.. ;-]

Just think of all the weight folks will lose, there’s always a silver lining .. and who knows what they’ll eventually find on the bottom of Lake Tahoe after it dries up. I been wanting to resurface the pool for years.. may finally get a chance..

Forecast near term here in San Jose, occasional spritzes the next few days.. we had dang near a quarter inch last week.. but need 10-12 more to refill reservoirs that exist and don’t.


20 posted on 02/04/2014 9:23:42 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi)
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