The basin of the overused Colorado River, which runs through seven Western states and part of Mexico, received comparatively little rainfall from the atmospheric rivers. The denuded land becomes susceptible to mudslides. The heavy rains can create dangers around burn scars from previous wildfires. Still, larger shrubs and trees retain moisture, making them less prone to burning as rapidly as they might when completely desiccated by drought, said Ed Clark, director of NOAA's National Water Center. This winter's bountiful rainfall has already triggered considerable growth in grasses and scrub that will dry out by summer, leaving a larger, thicker fuel bed for wildfires, said Isaac Sanchez, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire). Although the state in recent years budgeted $8.7 billion for drought resilience, much of that destined for stormwater capture, the projects are mostly in their infancy.
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But the plan is new, as is California's way of thinking about how to adapt to drought with climate change.
Most of that would be kept in groundwater or underground storage. The state's Water Supply Strategy released last year calls for creating storage space for up to 4 million acre-feet (4.9 billion cubic meters) of water, enough for 8 million households in a state of 40 million people.
As a result, stormwater runoff largely flows out to sea. HOW WELL HAS CALIFORNIA CAPTURED STORM WATER?Ĭalifornia's 20th century infrastructure was designed to rush water from north to south for irrigation, human consumption and flood prevention without much concern for recharging underground aquifers. And climate change points to future years that are likely to get warmer, exacerbating the increasingly dry climate. But in the past 25 years, only nine years were wet and 16 were dry, meaning the state needs seven more wet years to recover. During any normal 20-year period of the 20th century, about 10 years were wet and 10 years were dry - a sustainable ratio, Harter said. If someone gives you a check for $100, and you have money for a day, you're still broke."ĭuring any normal 20-year period of the 20th century, about 10 years were wet and 10 years were dry - a sustainable ratio, said Thomas Harter of the University of California at Davis. The driest areas were largely concentrated in the state's Central Valley agricultural lands.Įxperts warn that California and the West have not escaped longer-term conditions that, according to one study, created the region's driest 22-year span in 12 centuries during the period of 2000 to 2021.Īs Arizona State University hydrologist Jay Famiglietti put it: "Say you are broke. Department of Agriculture, showed large globs of the state in the red of "extreme" drought or deep red of "exceptional" drought. Just a few months ago, a color-coded map created by the monitor, which partners with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S.
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Drought Monitor, an initiative of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, deems California mostly drought free for the first time since 2020, with only the most arid regions in "severe" or "moderate" drought.
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