The week that was, 12/26/2010-1/1/2011
Tropical Storm Tasha caused flooding that affected an estimated 200,000 people in Queensland, Australia. Image: NASA. Click on the image to be taken to the Earth Observatory.
“This is without a doubt a tragedy on an unprecedented scale.” — Queensland Premier Anna Bligh on Australian floods covering an area larger than France and Germany combined, Floods in northeast Australia strand 200,000, AP / Los Angeles Times, December 31, 2010
… parts of the South had their first white Christmas since records have been kept. — East Coast blizzard strands travelers, frustrates drivers, Los Angeles Times, December 27, 2010
Around 32,000 properties are still without water in Belfast and surrounding towns after pipes burst during the freezing weather and subsequent thaw before Christmas, Water torture: Tankers on standby with supplies for Ulster as families tell of misery, Daily Mail, December 31, 2010…
High good, low bad: Mead in December 2010
The good news in the last hour of 2010 was that Lake Mead was 4.36 feet higher than the closing elevation for November. The bad news is that a winter bump is not unusual and, at ten feet lower than the closing December elevation for 2009 and at 40% capacity, the main storage reservoir on the Colorado River is 11.3 feet above a level that will trigger cuts for Arizona and Nevada.
Nerves are bad enough in the Grand Canyon State that the Arizona Republic reported this week that water managers are considering leaving part of their 2011 Colorado River allocation in Mead to forestall mandatory cuts. Larry Dozier, deputy general manager of the Central Arizona Project, told the Republic: “If we leave a little water this year, we won’t take the bigger hit the next year. Then we can take another spin on …
The Dry Garden: New Year/Water Year
Saturday may mark the start of the 2011 calendar year, but the 2011 water year, the 12-month cycle used by hydrologists and water managers, began on Oct. 1.
Few Southern California water years have begun on such a dry note. Three months ago, a strengthening La Niña pattern in the Pacific suggested to climatologists that we were staring at a water year so potentially dry that it could make your voice rasp.
Then in December a weather system known as the Pineapple Express carried near-record rains through California. The upshot in Los Angeles County is that most places have already received half or more of the rain expected for the entire season. It’s reasonable to expect that when the 2011 water year ends Sept. 30, we will have reached or surpassed the regional average of about 16 inches, with numbers that are higher in the foothills and lower in …
The week that was, 12/19-25/2010
Detail of fishing net tapestry "Kalama 1" by Mary Babcock, part of "Hydrophilia" at Hawaii Pacific University. Click on the image to be taken to the university website.
“I think it’s seasonal. The nets seem to wash up during the winter.” — Artist Mary Babcock, maker of tapestries from old fishing nets, Ocean Meditations, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, December 19, 2010
Mexico will leave part of its Colorado River allocation in Lake Mead for the next three years, slowing the decline of the drought-stricken reservoir and possibly delaying the onset of water rationing in Arizona and Nevada. — Colorado River deal aids US and Mexico, Arizona Republic, December 21, 2010
Enough water poured from Los Angeles streets to supply well over 130,000 homes for a year. — In a region that imports water, much goes to waste, Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2010
… with our watersheds nicely saturated …
The Dry Garden: Joy to the Valley
When the Valley Performing Arts Center opens to the public in February, it will be down to others to convey the thrill of seeing such a remarkable new venue rise from the Campus of Cal State Northridge. Admiration here is reserved for the landscape architect who encircled the center with 173 native trees, then punctuated the courtyard with a Dr Seuss-worthy assembly of succulents while achieving a tenfold reduction in the site’s previous water use.
That landscape architect is Stephen Billings of the Santa Monica firm Pamela Burton & Co.
Click here to keep reading in the Los Angeles Times about the new garden at the Valley Performing Arts Center.…
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