Replying to coast cruiser .Agreed CO2 has nothing to do with nonexistent California drought. How is the ice chunk caused by cO2? Lets here some fairy tails?
"Reservoirs will be full after this week" @53 That week having passed we can return to the cdec page. We can calculate these reservoirs that were at 58% of total capacity increased to 69%. Thus a good week for Calif. water storage. Yet is is not reservoirs that are 'full of it'.
That's percentage of 100% is what's normal for the of year.Many res are above normal and are being drained In anticipation of the spring melt.Which will be huge this spring with a much higher than normal snowpack.
I certainly agree that reservoirs need unfilled capacity for March/April snowmelt. So, we both disagree with mojo@53 about "full this week". Who was that mysterious poster anyway? Current snowpack is 115% of long-term average. What force compels you to suggest that is "much above average"?
"Full" when referring to CA res means level is at the average for date.Reservoirs are never allowed at 100% capacity.
Only one Calif reservoir is full in the sense of 'really near capacity'. This is Oroville, which could not be lowered by normal practice through its main spillway. Because unconsolidated fill under concrete spillway had washed away and the concrete has a big hole. The alternate spillway is being used and that presents problems because it is an unlined channel and very susceptible to erosion. I just looked at current Orovile lake level and is is still rising. Approaching 'overtop'. Certainly hoping for a low-damage outcome here. BTW mojo and I should have apologized before for intruding on Antarctic matters here. Would have been better to ressurect the Calif drought thread.
Source: Oroville Dam energency spillway in use for first time in dam history | The Sacramento Bee Impressive water flows but my understanding is the dam itself is not at risk. That hasn't always been the case as some earth-filled dams have collapsed in the past. I'm thinking of the Baldwin Hills Dam. Bob Wilson
This tallest US earthen dam will hold. Trouble is effort & expense to manage situation. Not that you-know-what has anything to do with meteorological extremes...
This tallest US earthen dam will hold. Trouble is effort & expense to manage situation. Not that you-know-what has anything to do with meteorological extremes...
Well in addition to setting more high temperature records, a new word "bombogenesis". Source: link Apparently it takes a polar air mass on land meeting a huge slug of tropical moisture. Hummm, where did all that moisture come from? Bob Wilson
More weather, not climate, just ordinary weather news: Once-in-a-decade heatwave melting the Arctic ... for the third time this year. Why? - CSMonitor.com First, the facts. January sea ice area has never been so small. In November, the coverage fell short of average by an area the size of the eastern half of the United States. Northeast Greenland had its warmest February day ever (by almost four degrees). The current heat wave brought Friday’s temperatures near the North Pole to 50 degrees above average, which is like New York City having a January day in the mid-80s. This kind of unprecedented weather leaves even seasoned researchers scratching their heads. “We’re still trying to figure out what is happening here,” Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist with the Colorado-based Snow and Ice Data Center, told KUAC. “The sea ice is so low there in part because it’s just been so darn warm in the Arctic this winter.” Of course, there’s a huge difference between weather and climate. The Earth is a vast and chaotic system, and heat waves as well as cold snaps can happen anywhere. But how often they take place can give insight into general patterns. Hummm, curious and then there is this slug of arctic air headed to the NorthEast instead of the Arctic circle. Bob Wilson
As of 7:00 AM AKST this morning (2/12/2017), the temp at Fairbanks, AK, airport was -38 F (-39 C). So it looks like there's pretty cold air there also. I've also been keeping occasional track of a buoy (Buoy 48282) well north of the Alaska north slope in the Arctic Sea that's consistently been around -30 F since I've been keeping track (few months now). Maybe there's a unusually amplified flow over the northern polar region this winter?
There was: Massive hurricane-force Atlantic storm to push abnormally mild air toward North Pole My understanding is this pumped a lot warm moist air towards the Arctic circle and may have helped reduce the sea ice freeze-up. Bob Wilson
It is currently (10:00 AM AKST) -51 F (-46 C) at site PFYU in Eastern Alaska! CWSU National TAF METAR maps - NOAA NWS
Sorry, it seems this version of PriusChat 'eats' URLs. It was the Atlantic side, east of Greenland that had an impressive low pumping warm air up. Bob Wilson
It looks like cold air is pooling on this side of the north pole. The apparent high amplitude upper flow is causing surface cold air mass to be displaced on this side of the pole.
Parts of Oroville (city) have now been evacuated Evacuation ordered for Oroville; dam spillway expected to fail - SFGate
