Water world

[BoSoxGal]

Now watch the idiots go back to wasting water, rather than continuing to conserve for dry days ahead.

[dales]

Technically, CALIFORNIA is still in a drought.

Water rates reflect that and those that exceed their monthly allotment are penalized.

[RayThom]

Current California reservoir status:



OR... try this:
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp ... ain.action

[rubato]

Now watch the idiots go back to wasting water, rather than continuing to conserve for dry days ahead.

Not so. Like the long-term reaction to Carter's deregulation of oil prices each drought has had a long-term influence on water usage in the Golden State. Starting with the previous "worst drought" of '76-77.


Speaking personally I use about 25 gal per person per day and continue to do so even though the drought is over. (to put this in perspective the most water efficient districts in Calif. like Santa Cruz, used on the order of 44gal/person/day) Once you establish new habits they tend to reinforce themselves. Also, once people install low-flow toilets, showerheads, faucets, clothes washers* and once you discover how little water your yard actually needs as opposed to how much you were using, this becomes part of the installed base.


When water was too plentiful it was also too cheap which made us more acutely vulnerable to shortages. The same thing happened with oil. By deregulating oil Carter (the wise) got people to buy higher mileage cars, insulate their homes, build more efficient power plants. Once those were all in place he broke the back of OPEC; they were unable to increase the price of oil no matter how much they tried to cut supply.


yrs,
rubato

*We got a front-loader a few year ago and WOW is that better. Less water AND the clothes come out much nicer.

[dales]

Carter (the wise) the nincompoop got people to buy higher mileage cars....

[oldr_n_wsr]

*We got a front-loader a few year ago and WOW is that better. Less water AND the clothes come out much nicer.

Just a note from someone who has done full overhauls on front loader washers.
Use 3/4 or less detergent than called for and make sure it is the right type of detergent. (He type). Too much detergent causes the bearing to wear out quickly.
If you see suds in the window, it's too much detergent.

Those front loaders spin at some pretty high speeds and when the bearing goes, it sounds like a jet aircraft at full throttle and may start jumping and shimmying.

[RayThom]

I have a top loader, Frigidaire HE laundry center. It was odd getting used to a washer with no agitator but after a few loads I was very pleased with the results. It takes a little longer to go through a normal wash cycle but with its Energy Star rating and much smaller electricity bill, it's an easy trade off.

https://tinyurl.com/jzz392z

[Long Run]

It could have been worse . . .

Geologic evidence shows that truly massive floods, caused by rainfall alone, have occurred in California every 100 to 200 years. Such floods are likely caused by atmospheric rivers: narrow bands of water vapor about a mile above the ocean that extend for thousands of kilometers.

* * * The only megaflood to strike the American West in recent history occurred during the winter of 1861-62. California bore the brunt of the damage. This disaster turned enormous regions of the state into inland seas for months, and took thousands of human lives. The costs were devastating: one quarter of California’s economy was destroyed, forcing the state into bankruptcy.

* * *
In 1861, farmers and ranchers were praying for rain after two exceptionally dry decades. In December their prayers were answered with a vengeance, as a series of monstrous Pacific storms slammed—one after another—into the West coast of North America, from Mexico to Canada. The storms produced the most violent flooding residents had ever seen, before or since.

Sixty-six inches of rain fell in Los Angeles that year, more than four times the normal annual amount, causing rivers to surge over their banks, spreading muddy water for miles across the arid landscape. Large brown lakes formed on the normally dry plains between Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean, even covering vast areas of the Mojave Desert. In and around Anaheim, , flooding of the Santa Ana River created an inland sea four feet deep, stretching up to four miles from the river and lasting four weeks.

Residents in northern California, where most of the state’s 500,000 people lived, were contending with devastation and suffering of their own. In early December, the Sierra Nevada experienced a series of cold arctic storms that dumped 10 to 15 feet of snow, and these were soon followed by warm atmospheric rivers storms. The series of warm storms swelled the rivers in the Sierra Nevada range so that they became raging torrents, sweeping away entire communities and mining settlements in the foothills—California’s famous “Gold Country.” A January 15, 1862, report from the Nelson Point Correspondence described the scene: “On Friday last, we were visited by the most destructive and devastating flood that has ever been the lot of ‘white’ men to see in this part of the country. Feather River reached the height of 9 feet more than was ever known by the ‘oldest inhabitant,’ carrying away bridges, camps, stores, saloon, restaurant, and much real-estate.” Drowning deaths occurred every day on the Feather, Yuba and American rivers. In one tragic account, an entire settlement of Chinese miners was drowned by floods on the Yuba River.

This enormous pulse of water from the rain flowed down the slopes and across the landscape, overwhelming streams and rivers, creating a huge inland sea in California’s enormous Central Valley—a region at least 300 miles long and 20 miles wide. Water covered farmlands and towns, drowning people, horses and cattle, and washing away houses, buildings, barns, fences and bridges. The water reached depths up to 30 feet, completely submerging telegraph poles that had just been installed between San Francisco and New York, causing transportation and communications to completely break down over much of the state for a month.

* * *

A piece in the Nevada City Democrat described the Native American response on January 11, 1862:

We are informed that the Indians living in the vicinity of Marysville left their abodes a week or more ago for the foothills predicting an unprecedented overflow. They told the whites that the water would be higher than it has been for thirty years, and pointed high up on the trees and houses where it would come. The valley Indians have traditions that the water occasionally rises 15 or 20 feet higher than it has been at any time since the country was settled by whites, and as they live in the open air and watch closely all the weather indications, it is not improbable that they may have better means than the whites of anticipating a great storm.

More at:https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... tastrophe/

[dales]

I read this last week.

Everything in perspective.

[Long Run]

There is a whole series of shots showing the epic snowfall this year in the Sierras. Here is one that gives some scale (and there is more winter to come).



http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Phot ... o-12434462

[Lord Jim]

We got another good sustained dousing last night. Today we're getting, showers, wind and hail (a pretty strong one is moving through now)

New maps show California's statewide drought nearly over



SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) --
New data shows that California's statewide drought is nearly over.

The latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly three-quarters of the state is no longer in a drought.

Right now, only sections of Santa Barbara, Ventura and imperial counties remain in severe drought, that's the third of five levels of drought.

At this time last year most of the state was in severe drought with all that red and dark red being exceptional drought - the worst possible stage.

http://abc7news.com/weather/californias ... r/1782476/

While last years El Niño did not deliver anywhere near as much precipitation as predicted, what it did do was break down The Mother Of All High Pressure Systems, that had been sitting off the coast of California for five years, acting as basically a shield deflecting every storm system north of the state...

With that gone, this year the storm systems have been gushing through the state all winter...

[Jarlaxle]

Since snowmobiling has been out, I took a motorcycle ride this weekend. Only for an hour or so, but it was good.

ETA
So is Ca done with their drought?

If so, save the water for next time.

Thought about it...but the roads are still loaded with salt and sand.

[Jarlaxle]

*We got a front-loader a few year ago and WOW is that better. Less water AND the clothes come out much nicer.

Just a note from someone who has done full overhauls on front loader washers.
Use 3/4 or less detergent than called for and make sure it is the right type of detergent. (He type). Too much detergent causes the bearing to wear out quickly.
If you see suds in the window, it's too much detergent.

Those front loaders spin at some pretty high speeds and when the bearing goes, it sounds like a jet aircraft at full throttle and may start jumping and shimmying.

For a full load, use about a tablespoon of HE detergent.

[oldr_n_wsr]

For a full load, use about a tablespoon of HE detergent.

Sounds about right. Never "Fill to the Line".
unless you like donating to the detergent makers and the appliance repair people.