Sacramento: California rejoices this week when the heavy water drop starts falling from the sky for the first time in any way that can be measured since spring, annual immersion marks the beginning of the rainy season after a few months the hottest and driest in the notes.
But when the rain began to fall on Tuesday night, Governor Gavin Newsom did a strange thing: he issued an emergency drought throughout the state and gave regulator permits to impose water restrictions throughout the state if they chose.
Newsom orders may seem boom, especially because fortune tellers predict up to 7 inches (18 cm) rain can fall on the parts of the northern California and Central Valley this week.
But experts say it makes sense if you think about drought because something is caused not by the weather, but with climate change.
For decades, California relied on rain and snow in winter to fill the main rivers of the state and flow in the spring, which then feed the large system of lakes that store water for drinking, agriculture and energy production.
But the annual runoff of the mountains is getting smaller, mostly because it gets hotter and more dried, not just because of heavy rain.
In spring, Snowpack California in the Sierra Nevada Mountains 60% of its historical average.
But the amount of water that managed to get to the reservoir is similar to 2015, when snowpack is only 5% of the historical average.
Almost all water officials are expected to get this year evaporation to the air that is hotter or absorbed into a dry soil.
“You don’t get into the type of drought that we see in Western America now only from losing some storms,” ​​said Justin Mancin, a professor of geography in Dartmouth College and co-leads from the duty group of drought in the administration of the Ocean and the National Atmospheric.
“The warm atmosphere evaporates more water from soil (and) reduces the amount of water available for other use, such as people and water power plants and planting plants.” “California’s water year” took place from October 1 to September 30.
Year water 2021, which has just ended, is a second opposed record.
Which before that is the fifth Drest in the note.
Some of the most important reservoirs of the state are at a low level record.
Everything is very bad at Lake Mendocino that state officials say it can dry next summer.
Even if California has rain and snow above this winter average, heating temperatures means it will still be enough to redeem all the lost California water.
Last year, California had the most warmest monthly monthly temperature in June, July and October 2020.
Jeanine Jones, the Interstate resource manager for the California Water Resources Department, said people should not think about drought “as the thing Occasionally this occasionally occurs, and then we return to a wetter system.
“” We really transition to a dry system, so, you know, dry it becomes new normal, “he said.
“Drought is not a short-term feature.
Drought takes time to develop, and they usually linger for some time.” Water regulators have ordered several farmers and other big users to stop taking water from the river and the main flow of the country.
Mandatory water restrictions for ordinary people can be next.
In July, Newscom asked people to voluntarily reduce their water use by 15%.
In July and August, people cut 3.5%.
On Tuesday, Newscom issued an executive order to give a state regulator permit to impose mandatory restrictions, including forbid people from washing their cars, using water to clean sidewalks and filling decorative fountains.
State officials have warned water institutions that they may not get water from the country’s reservoir this year, at least at first.
It will be very challenging, said Dave Eggerton, Executive Director of the California Water Institution Association.
But he said he believed California would start preserving more water immediately with the help of state conservation campaigns throughout the state, which would include a message on the electronic board along the busy highway.
“This will happen,” he said.
People start receiving messages, and they want to do their part, he added.