The declaration comes during one of the driest winters on record in California, following two dry years that already have left many reservoirs depleted. The state is facing “perhaps the worst drought that California has ever seen” since records began, Brown said during the Friday morning announcement.
Gov. Brown Declares CA Drought Emergency | NBC Southern California
Jerry should check back with us in 218 years about that Mann-made record drought.
July 19, 1994BEGINNING about 1,100 years ago, what is now California baked in two droughts, the first lasting 220 years and the second 140 years. Each was much more intense than the mere six-year dry spells that afflict modern California from time to time, new studies of past climates show. The findings suggest, in fact, that relatively wet periods like the 20th century have been the exception rather than the rule in California for at least the last 3,500 years, and that mega-droughts are likely to recur.The evidence for the big droughts comes from an analysis of the trunks of trees that grew in the dry beds of lakes, swamps and rivers in and adjacent to the Sierra Nevada, but died when the droughts ended and the water levels rose. Immersion in water has preserved the trunks over the centuries.
Dr. Scott Stine, a paleoclimatologist at California State University at Hayward, used radiocarbon dating techniques to determine the age of the trees’ outermost annual growth rings, thereby establishing the ends of drought periods. He then calculated the lengths of the preceding dry spells by counting the rings in each stump.
Severe Ancient Droughts: A Warning to California – New York Times
Kuroshio Current: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuroshio_Current
Just saw this on the Science Channel about Japans weather over the last 16 Million years.
Hell, plate techtonics heaving UP land masses cause ocean currents to shift thus changing weather patterns. Unless we can somhow stop the plates from moving and Volcanos from creating more land structures in the ocean, we are doomed to forever changing weather paterns.
Gee Wizz who would have thunk all this Global Fear mongering was B.S.
My recollection of the past 40 years or so of environmentalism is politicians, greenies and (political) scientists making absolutely inane comments like this one. People don’t call them to account or just ignore them. Brown is a clown, has been a clown and will be a clown. Maybe he gets off because of this.
To not start building desalination plants is almost criminal deglect !
How many billions for a railway to nowhere?
Would serve Moonbeam if this was the beginning of a 50 year drought, although I feel
sorry for the people out there and the produce farms that will be in deep trouble.
What is “deglect.”
Degenerate neglect?
Thank you.
It is remarkable how dry it gets with just two dry winters. Especially considering several recent winters have been record winters. I wonder how this compares to the droughts in the 50’s and 30’s?
For the curious, here is Stine in 2004-
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr193/psw_gtr193_1a_06_Stine.pdf
Very interesting. A second in geological terms. I wonder what the change?
Steve, that 1994 NYT article was a great find – excellent.
I think it’s pretty obvious why California is in a drought and 1) It’s likely to continue for a few more years; 2) it’s entirely natural and should have been expected already.
The reason is because the PDO is in its negative phase. The negative PDO blocks any rain from hitting southern California and northern Mexico, thus creating prolonged dry and hot conditions. This is normal. The same thing happened in the 1970s, the last time the PDO was in its negative phase. The fact we are now in an la nina situation only makes the situation worse. I don’t expect Governor Moonbeam to explain this to his people, and I fully expect Obama to try to exploit the situation to justify the draconian energy regulations he’s about to unleash on us all, but that is what is happening. It’s all perfectly natural. There is a reason why California is such an arid place to begin with and not as wet and full of life as the pacific northwest.
If you look at the historical record, the PDO had much longer negative phases centuries ago which probably explains why, as you pointed out, there were very long periods of hot and dry conditions in southern California. As the PDO cycles themselves are likely tied to the solar cycles the sun was very inactive for long stretches of time.
This negative phase (and la nina) is the reason Australia is so hot at its east coast and so wet and stormy in the north as well. The la nina, and it’s strong trade winds, were most certainly responsible for all the typhoons in the last few months in the pacific.
It’s too bad meteorologists don’t feel a responsibility to explain the weather to people and instead create an aura of hysteria when there doesn’t have to be one. A more reasoned explanation of events and proper forecasts would allow communities to mitigate better against the wrath of these natural events.
Are you a meteorologist?