California’s 11th atmospheric river storm of the season barreled through a beleaguered state this week, dropping more rain and snow, sending thousands scrambling for higher ground and leaving more than 300,000 without power.
An intense atmospheric river storm continued to put pressure on strained levees in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties on Tuesday as officials considered emergency measures to prevent more catastrophic flooding from hitting the already inundated area.
“The real question today is about manually breaching a section to relieve pressure,” said Zach Friend, a Santa Cruz County supervisor whose district includes Watsonville, which is now threatened by the swelling Pajaro River.
California faced another atmospheric river event Tuesday that forecasters warn would bring heavy rains, widespread flooding and mountain snow to much of the state through Wednesday. The big picture:As heavy rain fell Tuesday, officials warned the latest atmospheric river could "hammer" areas inundated by flooding in the earlier storm.
Video shows recent water releases at Oroville and Folsom dams as officials open the spillways for flood control purposes. The Oroville dam release of March 10, 2023, came as a series of storms increased the facility’s water elevation to 840 feet, 60 feet shy of its maximum.
As more heavy rain pummels California, the torrential downpours that have flooded large swaths of the state could help address another climate-change-related problem: drought.
TRUCKEE, Placer County — Two storms dumped more than a foot of snow on this town over the past week and another was forecast to hit early next week. In the ski mecca of Truckee, that means powder hounds again will head for the lifts at some of America’s most famous ski mountains.
During the past few months, dozens of feet of snow and rain have fallen on the Sierra. For much of mountain California, that’s meant refreshed snowpack, the promise of a longer ski season, and a spring and summer melt that will help keep drought at bay. But for some locals around Lake Tahoe, the weather is losing some of its luster.
Atmospheric rivers are storms akin to rivers in the sky that dump massive amounts of rain and can cause flooding, trigger mudslides and result in loss of life and enormous property damage.
The latest in a series of atmospheric river storms soaked California on Tuesday, causing flooding and mandatory evacuations for residents in 10 counties.
Most summer mornings at first light, Jared Davis is a few miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, motoring his charter fishing boat Salty Lady over the Pacific Ocean. His eyes sweep the horizon, looking for diving birds, but mostly he watches the screen of his dashboard fish-finder for schools of anchovies — a sure sign that salmon are near. When the signs look good, he throttles down to trolling speed and tells his customers to let out their lines.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) continues to make flood control protection releases from Lake Oroville to the Feather River this week. Total releases to the Feather River will increase from 15,000 cfs to 20,000 cfs by noon on Wednesday due to expected runoff increases into the reservoir from ongoing storms.
The California Water Plan describes and updates a broad set of resource management strategies (RMSs) that help local agencies and governments manage their water and related resources. Every RMS can be a technique, program, or policy that can be used to meet water-related management needs of a region and the state as a whole.
During this workshop, the Water Plan Team will gather comments on the draft Flood Resource Management RMS. This will be an online only workshop, please register to receive the link.
DWR will provide financial and direct technical assistance to counties for developing their County Drought Resilience Plan to provide needed water shortage protection and emergency response for state small water systems and domestic wells per SB 552. This webinar will mark the launch and availability of these assistance opportunities.
The California Water Plan will hold a virtual public workshop over Zoom on March 29, 2023, from 1 - 4 p.m. The Water Plan Team will provide an in-depth overview of draft chapter content for Update 2023. The workshop will serve as a venue interested parties to provide input on the draft content and recommendations.
This online short course will review the fundamental principles of groundwater and watershed hydrology, water budgets, water quality, and water law and regulation in an intuitive, highly accessible fashion. Through real world examples, participants learn about the most common tools for measuring, monitoring, and assessing groundwater and surface water resources. We then review the key steps and elements of planning for groundwater sustainability and implementing projects and management actions.
This tour ventures through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. The southern part of the vast region, the San Joaquin Valley, is the focus of this tour as it faces challenges after years of drought, dwindling water supplies, decreasing water quality and farmland conversion for urban growth.
This tour explores the heart of California water policy – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay – to learn about the critical role the Delta plays in the state, Delta planning initiatives, water project operations, fish passage, ecosystem restoration, levees and flood management, Delta agriculture and water supply reliability.
Groundwater Resources Association of California - The popular Annual GSA Summit is getting revamped in collaboration with the ACWA Groundwater Committee and SGMA Implementation Subcommittee. This is a once-a-year get-together to foster progress on SGMA implementation, collaborating with ACWA members and implementers and GRA technical experts.
When: June 7 - 8, 2023 Where: Kimpton Sawyer Hotel in Sacramento
DWR is responsible for managing and protecting California’s water resources and works with others to benefit the State’s people and to protect, restore, and enhance the natural and human environments. DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, oversees dam safety, provides flood protection, helps in emergency response, assists regional and local water agencies, promotes water conservation and safety, and plans integrated watershed management – in all to advance water resource sustainability.
The California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources (DWR) management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any program, project, or viewpoint. If a link doesn’t work, entering the headline into Google News should locate the original news story.