Drought
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Phoenix

California firefighters battle out of control wildfire as area withers under triple-digit temperatures

Dan Whitcomb
Reuters
Sat, 13 Sep 2014 21:22 UTC
wildfire
© AFP
Los Angeles - Hundreds of firefighters spent a second day on Saturday battling a wildfire burning out of control in a national forest southeast of Los Angeles, as the region baked under triple-digit temperatures that prompted authorities to issue a "heat alert."

The so-called Silverado Fire, which broke out in the Cleveland National Forest on Friday morning, had charred some 1,600 acres (647 hectares) by Saturday afternoon as it burned through brush and chaparral left bone dry by California's record drought.

Evacuation orders were issued for more than 200 homes in and around Silverado Canyon as some 740 firefighters worked to gain a measure of control over the flames, assisted by 10 water-dropping helicopters and five fixed-wing aircraft, according to the U.S Forest Service fire-tracking website InciWeb.

The heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring over 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) in parts of Southern California on Saturday and was not expected to break until late Sunday. The sweltering heat prompted Los Angeles health officials to issue a "heat alert" for this weekend, urging residents to take special precautions.

"Extreme heat such as this is not just an inconvenience, it can be dangerous and even deadly, but we can protect ourselves, our families and our neighbors if we take steps to remain cool and hydrated," Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, the city's interim health director, said in issuing the heat alert.
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Water

Lifestyles of the rich and thirsty: In the midst of California's worst drought, the wealthy truck in their own water

Ann Louise Bardach
Politico
Sun, 24 Aug 2014 15:43 UTC
golf course
© Getty
Many mornings, just before 7 a.m., a large tanker truck pulls up to the grand gates of Oprah Winfrey's 40-acre estate in Montecito, California. Inside is neither merchandise nor produce - just water.

A year ago, Oprah's annual bill from the Montecito Water District was just shy of $125,000. This year, it is less than half. Like many in this wealthy enclave, Oprah has cut back on her consumption of district water. That said, her property has its own wells and a small lake and, according to neighbors, there are the trucks.

These days, tankers can be seen barreling down Montecito's narrow country roads day and night, ferrying up to 5,000 gallons of H20 to some of the world's richest and thirstiest folks.

As California trudges into its third year of a statewide drought - currently at an alarming Stage 4 level, denoting what the federal government calls "exceptional drought" conditions - few towns have been as hard hit as Montecito.
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Sun

California's megadrought

Doyle Rice
USAtoday.com
Wed, 03 Sep 2014 09:23 UTC
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© Getty ImagesFull water levels are visible behind the Folsom Dam at Folsom Lake on July 20, 2011, in Folsom, Calif. Low water levels are shown on Aug. 19 in Folsom, Calif.
Megadroughts are extreme dry spells that can last for a decade or longer. They have parched the West, including present-day California, long before Europeans settled the region in the 1800s

California is in the third year of one of the state's worst droughts in the past century, one that's led to fierce wildfires, water shortages and restrictions, and potentially staggering agricultural losses.

The dryness in California is only part of a longer-term, 15-year drought across most of the Western USA, one that bioclimatologist Park Williams said is notable because "more area in the West has persistently been in drought during the past 15 years than in any other 15-year period since the 1150s and 1160s" - that's more than 850 years ago.

"When considering the West as a whole, we are currently in the midst of a historically relevant megadrought," said Williams, a professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York.

Megadroughts are what Cornell University scientist Toby Ault calls the "great white sharks of climate: powerful, dangerous and hard to detect before it's too late. They have happened in the past, and they are still out there, lurking in what is possible for the future, even without climate change." Ault goes so far as to call megadroughts "a threat to civilization."

What Is A Megadrought?

Megadroughts are defined more by their duration than their severity. They are extreme dry spells that can last for a decade or longer, according to research meteorologist Martin Hoerling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Megadroughts have parched the West, including present-day California, long before Europeans settled the region in the 1800s.

Comment: Climate change is more likely due to Fireballs and Comets.

See also:
Climate Change Swindlers and the Political Agenda
Sott.net Series on Comets & Catastrophes

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Cow Skull

The Southwest's drought is bad and could last a generation or more

Tom Philpott
Mother Jones
Wed, 03 Sep 2014 15:17 UTC
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© Irrigation pipes on Southern California farmland. Eddie J. Rodriquez/Shutterstock
Late-summer 2014 has brought uncomfortable news for residents of the US Southwest - and I'm not talking about 109-degree heat in population centers like Phoenix.

A new study by Cornell University, the University of Arizona, and the US Geological Survey researchers looked at the deep historical record (tree rings, etc.) and the latest climate change models to estimate the likelihood of major droughts in the Southwest over the next century. The results are as soothing as a thick wool sweater on a midsummer desert hike.

The researchers concluded that odds of a decadelong drought are "at least 80 percent." The chances of a "megadrought," one lasting 35 or more years, stands at somewhere between 20 percent and 50 percent, depending on how severe climate change turns out to be. And the prospects for an "unprecedented 50-year megadrought" - one "worse than anything seen during the last 2000 years"­ - checks in at a nontrivial 5 to 10 percent.

Comment: Additional examples that support researchers' conclusions that odds of a potential 'decade-long drought' in the Southwest are concerning:

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Wolf

Spike in coyote attacks on animal pets in Claremont, California

Angela Bailey
Claremont Courier
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 15:23 UTC
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It seems you can't step outside your front door these days without spotting a coyote running down the street. Lack of food and extreme drought conditions in the Angeles National Forest are forcing wildlife further down the mountain and into town, alarming residents who are unsure of how to protect themselves and their pets.

"The problem is everywhere," says Don Nelson, Warden with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), of the recent coyote sightings. "Anywhere there is open space, even a small amount of open space where they can find food and somewhere they can get up and under for coolness in the daytime and seclusion from predators."

Two weeks ago, COURIER publisher and owner Peter Weinberger and his wife lost their beloved chihuahua Rudy to a suspected coyote attack. The animals have been seen frequenting their Claremont neighborhood in recent weeks, particularly on trash days, in search of food.
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Water

As California drought becomes "race to the bottom", state considers regulating groundwater use for the first time

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge.com
Fri, 29 Aug 2014 19:45 UTC
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The ongoing disaster that is the drought in the West is leaving wells dry across California - which account for up to 60% of water usage. As WSJ reports, as groundwater levels plunge (100 feet or more lower than norm), wells are being driven further and further into the earth (500 feet in some cases) forcing the state legislature is considering regulating underground water for the first time. "We can't continue to pump groundwater at the rates we are and expect it to continue in the future," warns one engineer, adding "What's scary is we're not fixing anything... It's a race to the bottom."
"Everybody was pumping to their heart's content, until they realized the basin isn't that big."
As WSJ reports, "Groundwater was kind of out of sight, out of mind," said Lester Snow, executive director of the California Water Foundation, a nonprofit policy group in Sacramento, and former director of the state Department of Water Resources. But now...
With groundwater levels falling across the Golden State - causing dried-up wells, sinking roadbeds and crumbling infrastructure - the state legislature is considering regulating underground water for the first time.

Californians have long battled over rights to rivers, lakes and other surface-water supplies, but the drought is finally shifting the focus to groundwater, which accounts for about 40% of water used in normal years - and up to 60% in drought years, as other sources dry up.

Comment: The drought shows no signs of letting up and is continuing to spread. Will these new government actions help precipitate a migration out of California?

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Wolf

Another atypical animal attack on humans: Villagers viciously attacked by a pack of starving wolves in China

Ollie Gillman
Daily Mail, UK
Wed, 13 Aug 2014 16:00 UTC
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Grey wolves usually keep away from humans because of the threat of being hunted. There are thought to be 10,000 living in Xinjiang


* Two seriously injured in attack by wolves driven mad by hunger

* One victim has ear torn clean off, while others suffer scratches to face

* Starving beasts attacked humans after drought killed off their usual prey

These shocking images show the horrifying injuries suffered by villagers in China when a pack of starving wolves attacked.

Up to five of the animals surrounded the small farming community before viciously mauling the six people living there, leaving two seriously injured in a previously unheard of attack.

One of the victims had their ear torn off by the wolves, who had been driven mad by hunger, while others suffered bites and scratches to the face, neck and chest.

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Six Chinese villagers were injured when wolves driven mad with hunger attacked

Comment: There appears to have been a spate of unusually aggressive animal attacks on humans of late including some by species normally thought of as being wary and retiring when encountering people, see also: Giant anteaters kill Brazilian hunters!

Bear attacks kill at least three people with many others injured in Siberia and far-east Russia

Boy and grandmother attacked and injured by river otter on Pilchuck River, Washington

Paddling family of three attacked by a beaver in Austria

400 pound alligator attacks 9-year-old boy, Florida

Crocodile kills fisherman in front of his wife in Northern Territory, Australia

Man mauled by bear in Italian wood

Minneapolis girl attacked and chased by otter in Wisconsin lake

More unusual animal behaviour: Crocodile attack earns Florida swimmers dubious distinction

Aggressive dolphin tried to push swimmer underwater off the coast of Ireland

Three dingoes attack man on Fraser Island beach, Australia

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Water

California drought: East Porterville residents without water as wells go dry


CBS Sacramento
Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:18 UTC
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© Chieko Hara, APVolunteers Marrisa Zuniga, right, Paul Vigil, and Raul Alatorre, left, load cases of water on a dolly to deliver homes in East Porterville, Calif., Friday, Aug. 22, 2014. Nearly 1,000 people whose wells have gone dry due to drought received an emergency allotment of bottled water Friday.
Hundreds of people in a California town have no water after wells ran dry during the state's drought.The small town of East Porterville in Tulare County has about 7,300 residents, and at least 300 homes have been without water for weeks.

"We can't shower. We're wearing dirty clothes. My kids had to wear dirty clothes to school this morning," said Elizabeth Baker. "I had to go across the street last night to get water for my kids from the fire department."

The county set up a 5,000-gallon water tank for residents to help with flushing toilets and irrigation, but now drinking water is the problem. They had to distribute more than 15,000 gallons of drinking water last week.

There are fears the problem could be even worse as people believe some people aren't reporting their wells have gone dry out of fear their landlords will evict them, or their children will be taken away. In fact, the county didn't know how dire the problem was until they were tipped off by a nonprofit group.

Donna Johnson has been delivering water to those in need for months. She's even taken out a loan to pay for the water.

Comment: This situation is continuing to widen and is getting worse.

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Sun

Guatemala declares state of calamity in 17 drought-hit regions


Shanghai Daily
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
Guatemala drought
© Daniel Leclair/Reuters
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina on Monday declared a state of calamity in 17 of the country's 22 departments, where as many as 200,000 rural and indigenous families whose livelihoods depend solely on farming are said to have been afflicted by a severe drought in those areas and a potential famine.

"At a cabinet meeting this Monday, we signed a governmental decree that declares a State of Calamity in 17 departments as a result of the effects on agriculture of the prolonged drought," the president said in a tweet.

The decree, which requires legislative approval, would allow emergency assistance and humanitarian aid to be delivered to families in the affected regions which have been without rainfall for two months and suffered crop losses.
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Sun

No end in sight: California's record drought is making Earth's surface rise

Sarah Zielinski
Smithsonian
Sun, 24 Aug 2014 03:43 UTC
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© Ruaridh Stewart/ZUMA Press/CorbisCalifornia’s exceptional drought has exposed the bottom of Big Bear Lake.
The record-breaking California drought is so bad that monitoring stations used to study earthquakes can detect the drying ground rising up. Measurements of these subtle movements, made using GPS instruments, suggest that the western United States is missing some 62 trillion gallons of water, enough to cover the entire region six inches deep.

Drought has plagued various parts of the western United States for years. California's dry times started at the beginning of 2013 and have continued to worsen. Nearly 100 percent of the state is now experiencing drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and more than half the state falls under the most severe category of "exceptional drought." Water restrictions are in place. Farmers have been hard hit. And some people are even questioning participation in the viral "ice-bucket challenge" that is raising awareness and funding for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

While it's not difficult to see parched lawns and drying lakes, and scientists can directly measure changes in rainfall and stream flow, getting a measure of how much water has been lost from the desiccating landscape hasn't been easy. The new study, appearing today in the journal Science, provides a way to do just that by taking advantage of GPS monitors set up across the country.

Comment: Richard Howitt, professor emeritus of resource economics, stated:
"A well-managed basin is used like a reserve bank account," Howitt said. "We're acting like the super rich who have so much money they don't need to balance their checkbook."
The systems in which we live are failing in a fractal-like way. For those interested in the science behind these failures, from cosmic, to global, to you, check out:

Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection

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