If only we built reservoirs to keep the water for the drought years it would be great news.
The problem isn't storage capacity. It's wasteful consumption growing water-intensive crops in the desert.
California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
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Re: California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
#92Stupid brain …
“… free of doughnuts …”
Definitely had me clicking.
Re: California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
#93Ironically, the rest of the country is having a drought: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2026/01/18/winter-dro...
Colorado is having a record low snow season. It's been tough for skiing.
Not great up here in Vancouver either - lots of rain but not snow. The problem with this is that even though we'll have full reservoirs at the start of the summer, when the rain ends, we deplete the lakes rapidly, and that slope downward gets steeper every year. It really makes me think that we'll need more dams, more reservoirs, to hold in more of the precious fresh water rather than letting it all run out. All winter long the rivers have been at really high flow rates because the lakes are full and the dams are wide open letting it go... but we'll miss that water in a few months!
Re: California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
#94If only we built reservoirs to keep the water for the drought years it would be great news.
California has already invested a lot into reservoirs. In fact, as a pilot, I recall noticing that nearly all lakes in California are actually man-made reservoirs. I doubt there is much room left for economically building more; all the easy ones have been taken, and more. Surely the cost benefit of just investing a lot into desalination must be getting close.
Desalination must be insanely expensive; I’m always shocked it wasn’t done decades ago.
Considering California always seems to have power and water issues, I’d think combining these things would make a lot of sense. Some of these exist and there seems to be a fair bit of research in the area. I have to image at some point that will be the direction California would need to go. Of course, if they are all-in on solar and wind, then maybe not.
Re: California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
#95If only we built reservoirs to keep the water for the drought years it would be great news.
Could use some large scale geo-engineering. Pity that we don't have a radiation-free way of blowing a gigantic hole into the ground that can store a few trillion litres.
Re: California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
#96Until ... 10 . 9 . 8 ...
Re: California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Colorado is having a record low snow season. It's been tough for skiing.
Not great up here in Vancouver either - lots of rain but not snow. The problem with this is that even though we'll have full reservoirs at the start of the summer, when the rain ends, we deplete the lakes rapidly, and that slope downward gets steeper every year. It really makes me think that we'll need more dams, more reservoirs, to hold in more of the precious fresh water rather than letting it all run out. All wint…
Solar panels can also help, as BC gets long sunny days when the reservoirs are low.
Re: California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
#98I've lived in California my whole life (and the same town for most of that). This was the most rain I can remember in decades and the most "destruction" I've seen caused by it. Between the ground being saturated and wind before/after/during the storms there were plenty of downed trees. We were also down to running sprinklers once a week (lawns are silly), but have had them off entirely for a bit now.
curious where in CA. in the past 15y ive def. seen more rain lol.
I think this has to be seen as "over some span of time", because a drought is an "over some span of time" thing.
Re: California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
#99Yeah cause Trump made them stop dumping the water into the ocean
Re: California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years
#100If only we built reservoirs to keep the water for the drought years it would be great news.
California has already invested a lot into reservoirs. In fact, as a pilot, I recall noticing that nearly all lakes in California are actually man-made reservoirs. I doubt there is much room left for economically building more; all the easy ones have been taken, and more. Surely the cost benefit of just investing a lot into desalination must be getting close.
> nearly all lakes in California are actually man-made reservoirs
This is sometimes true even in much wetter states, though. I recall being thoroughly surprised to find that out that Virginia (!) has only two natural lakes, one of which is basically just an open area (though a large one) of the Great Dismal Swamp.