California Drought Update
January 19, 2022
By Paul Homewood
The BBC called it a megadrought, so how is that drought going in California?
Climate at a Glance | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (noaa.gov)
We’ve heard a lot about California drought in the last few years, but the data continues to show that it has been no worse than several others since 1895.
News you won’t hear on the BBC!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Precipitation trend line looks stable. Drought can have various factors.
The a$$holes in Sacramento are sitting on 2.4 billion dollars that we voted for a few years ago. It was for more and higher dams. But since the dem poloiticians are in the pocket of the enviro whackos, noting has been don e.
Much of CA has a Mediterranean climate, Cs in the Köppen system.
Wide swings in precipitation are expected, unlike a place such as Singapore with an Af.
John, as a lesser mortal, your abbreviations go over my head. What is ‘Cs in the Köppen system’ and Af in regards Singapore? If I’m too banal, no worries. I spent two and a half years in Singers 1970/72 and friends who were also there at the time and revisited in 2000 say the rain patterns have altered considerably. During their stay in 2000,it was common for rain to last all day, whereas back in ’70/72 it was generally morning or afternoon, not both.
Hi Paul,
Sorry for the terse prose. I hope the following helps.
This fellow: Wladimir Peter Köppen . . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wladimir_K%C3%B6ppen
. . . used plant boundaries to design a climate classification system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6ppen_climate_classification
He started with the capital letters A, B, C, D, & E. Then he added 2nd and 3rd small letters to subdivide. Using vegetation was time consuming and costly so the characterization was switched to temperature and precipitation.
There are a dozen or so “ C ” climates, as outlined at the link.
The Cs generally have a dry high-sun season, like lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Then temperature is used to subdivide.
This page . . .
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/California_Köppen.svg
. . . shows how this gets mapped out for California.
It used to be common for lab exercises in Earth Science classes to give students a dozen sets of precip/temp data for places and the task was to code and map the results.
Thank you John, will peruse the links after completing a workload. Busy right now, but end in sight.
Regards
Paul H
Mediterranean Sclerophyll or Chaparral in the US. Leathery leaves and a lot of resins in the shrubby species. Need frequent burning and rely on flash fires which kill out other species but not the roots of the Chaparral species. Of course, California and the environmental wizards stopped that in favor of huge killing fires to be followed by mudslides as the roots were killed.
Been living in Southern California over 70 years. Drought times come and go but are not frequent. Agriculture takes the bulk of water and most of that is shipped out of state. CA talks about water conservation a lot during drought periods but forgets about it when the reservoirs are full, which always happens eventually. Desalination plants are touted as the panacea but so far have a poor track record for costs and actual need. Fact is more water is funneled to the ocean than CA could ever use so it’s not for lack of it.
Given they’ve had record snowfalls across the Sierra Nevadas and Rockies this winter, when will they cancel the fictitious drought?
There is snow now, but if the precipitation is lacking for the next few months, the drought continues
And never mind the Sacto buffoons are sitting on 2.4+ billion dollars we voted years ago for more/higher dams. It is NOT the fault of the “drought” but of the liberal reps and their “green’ handlers.