Southwest prepares for mega drought

Travis said:
It seems the high pressure system causing this has been in place for 13 months. Which is unprecedented.
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Yup, here's the culprit:

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It has been dubbed the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge (RRR) by a California weather blogger.
 
Sacramento adapted some pretty strict rules on water use yesteday. THis drought is worse then the one about ten years ago.
BTW just to quibble. California is not usual considered part of the Southwest. That usually refers to Arizona and New Mexico.
 
Travis said:
But libertarians insist that greenhouse gases are a myth like gnomes and Vermont.
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But a couple drought years is not "Climate Change". It's weather, not climate. (to use the AGW believer's argument)
 
dudalb said:
BTW just to quibble. California is not usual considered part of the Southwest. That usually refers to Arizona and New Mexico.
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This. ^^^

I'm inSaneDiego, and It's not considered Southwest.

But I haven't been able to turn off my automatic sprinkler system yet. Bitch is, the utility company uses this "wet time" to figure sewer bills for the rest of the year.

Meantime, If I wanted to use the minimum water per day, I would have to double my usage.

Good thing I drink wine instead of water. ;)
 
If it's too hot... too cold... too rainy.... too dry... apparently it's all the fault of greenhouse gases.
 
Caper said:
If it's too hot... too cold... too rainy.... too dry... apparently it's all the fault of greenhouse gases.
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No, unlike guns which are designed to kill, greenhouse gases are generally pretty good things. Wouldn't want an atmosphere w/o H2O for example.
Problem is dumping tons of crap into the air which upsets a fine balance. That's when all sorts of nasty things start happening, kind of like a Superfund site that nobody notices until everyone in the area has died of cancer. And it's not just CO2--things like deforestation which is a pretty massive human footprint are also not helpful. Climate change is for sure a complex subject, which is why it's an easy target for one to mock the alleged link to increased frequency of extreme events--but artificially changing the composition of our atmosphere is really a pretty simple thing to grasp.
As for the OP, yep, this dang W coast ridge is really getting annoying. It's extending the long term (15+ years) drought here in CO and obviously leading to historic dryness out in CA. I won't ascribe it to AGW--but I can't see how AGW is helping any.
 
Don't worry, the rain will come eventually to Cali. Then we'll get more of those awesome videos of houses sliding down hills.
 
I recommend the documentary series "Cadillac Desert." based on the book of the same name.

tl;dr -- The Southwest US is a desert. Human influence on water use/distribution is an unsustainable anomaly.
 
stanfr said:
No, unlike guns which are designed to kill, greenhouse gases are generally pretty good things. Wouldn't want an atmosphere w/o H2O for example.
Problem is dumping tons of crap into the air which upsets a fine balance. That's when all sorts of nasty things start happening, kind of like a Superfund site that nobody notices until everyone in the area has died of cancer. And it's not just CO2--things like deforestation which is a pretty massive human footprint are also not helpful. Climate change is for sure a complex subject, which is why it's an easy target for one to mock the alleged link to increased frequency of extreme events--but artificially changing the composition of our atmosphere is really a pretty simple thing to grasp.
As for the OP, yep, this dang W coast ridge is really getting annoying. It's extending the long term (15+ years) drought here in CO and obviously leading to historic dryness out in CA. I won't ascribe it to AGW--but I can't see how AGW is helping any.
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Yeah... I think you're right. Kinda get sick of hearing every weather event in the world blamed on global warming...as if to imply up until 100 years ago... weather was perfect.... everywhere.

To be fair.... the singling out of weather events works both ways.
 
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Caper said:
Yeah... I think you're right. Kinda get sick of hearing every weather event in the world blamed on global warming...as if to imply up until 100 years ago... weather was perfect.... everywhere.

To be fair.... the singling out of weather events works both ways.
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Sure, but the contrary view would be to disregard all weather events because they're just weather and not climate.
 
Travis said:
You all might have missed it with the media establishment falling all over itself to report on the cold out east that somehow proves climate change is wrong.
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It's been pretty strange to watch on TV over here. One channel is reporting on the extreme cold in the US, so you switch to a different channel and end up with the local news reporting on how we've just had the hottest year on record, not just the hottest average temperature throughout the year but also the hottest day and hottest month since the records began in 1910.

(We're still in summer here. As I write this I've got two fans going and a spray-bottle of water to keep me cool.)

ETA:
Caper said:
Kinda get sick of hearing every weather event in the world blamed on global warming...as if to imply up until 100 years ago... weather was perfect.... everywhere.
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Well, the records do show that it wasn't as hot over here a hundred years ago as it was last year. :p

But at least they're not blaming it on El Niño anymore. That got old pretty quickly.
 
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casebro said:
This. ^^^

I'm inSaneDiego, and It's not considered Southwest.

But I haven't been able to turn off my automatic sprinkler system yet. Bitch is, the utility company uses this "wet time" to figure sewer bills for the rest of the year.

Meantime, If I wanted to use the minimum water per day, I would have to double my usage.

Good thing I drink wine instead of water. ;)
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You can't get much southwestier than San Diego in the US. Aside from Hawaii
 
Caper said:
Yeah... I think you're right. Kinda get sick of hearing every weather event in the world blamed on global warming...as if to imply up until 100 years ago... weather was perfect.... everywhere.

To be fair.... the singling out of weather events works both ways.
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This is an unprecedented 13 month long high pressure system. I would hardly call that a single weather event.
 
Travis said:
This is an unprecedented 13 month long high pressure system. I would hardly call that a single weather event.
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So tell me what "single weather event" means to you? "a... 13 month long high pressure system" sure sounds like one event to me,and it is weather, so....
 
Well, what is the line between weather and climate?

In my mind a hurricane is a weather event. A hurricane season is climate.

So anything that has gone on for 13 months would seem to be more of a climate issue rather than a one off weather event. But that's just my take on it.
 
This sucks for us, because droughts for you guys usually equate to blisteringly cold winters for us. That arctic wind blast we got almost put me out of commission.

The bad weather does suck though. I think we're pass the point of no return. I think it's only gonna get worse from here on out.
 
Travis said:
Well, what is the line between weather and climate?

In my mind a hurricane is a weather event. A hurricane season is climate.

So anything that has gone on for 13 months would seem to be more of a climate issue rather than a one off weather event. But that's just my take on it.
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That's actually a pretty good guess. From my understanding of it, weather does indicate a specific time like a day or an hour. I know is Spanish and French the words for weather and time are the same. I'm just taking a completely wild guess, but I agree with you.
 
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