Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

deadman449 t1_j3x56kx wrote

I was reading articles during summer about 100inches of rain coming to California. I thought it was a feverish dream, but the scientists were right. This is suppose to be one of those every 100 year events that seems to happen every year now days.

250

GoArray t1_j3xmjcp wrote

Love that this isn't even a controversial comment, despite this storm literally breaking 100+ year old records

118

Bait_and_Swatch t1_j3yn44s wrote

Not to be the fly in the ointment, but wouldn’t it have to happen again in a year or two for that to be true, since it just broke the 100 year old records?

32

GoArray t1_j3yo03t wrote

Right, that's the point of my comment, this is actually a 100 year storm. Not, as the OC put it and a bunch agreed, happening every year or two.

Of all the events to use as ammo or make fun or w.e., this ain't one of them. (Though still likely a result of cc)

29

NettingStick t1_j3z8hbh wrote

I didn't read it that way, but I see where you're coming from. I read it as saying that this storm is one of a class of events that are (in general) becoming more common.

12

lasvegasnv11 t1_j3yvwmk wrote

We had a solid amount of rain a couple years ago (Jan-Feb 2019). Broke records in areas around SoCal.

4

Maliluma t1_j3xp3we wrote

I live in the central San Joaquin valley and I read similar articles. Basically the articles were saying that where I currently live temporarily turned into a lake during the Gold Rush. Yes, I think about it and am a little concerned.

52

rsjaffe t1_j3zcjpf wrote

Central San Joaquin Valley used to be a lake before it was drained by the Spanish.

10

found_allover_again t1_j3xb3qh wrote

>one of those every 100 year events that seems to happen every year now days.

Is it still a 100-year event? Should start getting classified as yearly event now.

9

Rage_Like_Nic_Cage t1_j3xrqld wrote

it’s up to the Government bodies (like NOAA and FEMA) to update their rainfall data/models, which is done via statistical analysis.

That being said, some states aren’t waiting around and are starting to require standards/regulations to meet their own updated/“future storm event” models. For example, in New Jersey stormwater design has to be updated, so any proposed roadway projects that were previously required to contain/handle something like the 25 year storm event now are required to meet the “Future 25-year storm event”.

15

found_allover_again t1_j3yd7e2 wrote

That makes sense. At the very least, they should update their flood maps so new construction can't be done in these new flood prone areas.

2

SatanicNotMessianic t1_j3zzk2s wrote

Are they weighting the more recent data more strongly to account for the distributions to change in a given direction over time?

1

Hopeful_Hamster21 t1_j3zt5vd wrote

Between this and the recent east coast storms... This is basically "the day after tomorrow". That movie was sensationalized, but it was based on a book called "the global superstore", whose premise was that climate change would trigger a series of giant ass storms world wide. Granted, the book was pseudo-science at best, but it is what we're seeing.

8

yamirzmmdx t1_j3wttzs wrote

From drought to wildfires to floods.

Sigh.

195

ObjectiveDark40 t1_j3wyuic wrote

Don't forget mudslides... especially in areas that were previously impacted by wild fires.

73

WildYams t1_j3ye6a8 wrote

On the plus side, if we start getting rain like this more often, it'll lead to fewer wildfires.

7

ObjectiveDark40 t1_j3yf7qn wrote

Except the large amount of growth that will occur in spring and then die off in summer and lay down on top of the rest of the unburnt fuel. 7 years of draught and 1 year of floods is not going to solve anything.

36

WildYams t1_j3yqlvi wrote

That's why I said "if we start getting rain like this more often".

26

briansabeans t1_j41ga4m wrote

But that's not happening nor is there any sign of that. We are just getting hit by storm after storm after storm for a few weeks. That's not a "plus side"; this is a recipe for mudslides and wildfires. Fixing our water shortage takes a lot more than 1 month and takes a lot more than 1 year.

2

WildYams t1_j42hnd9 wrote

> Fixing our water shortage takes a lot more than 1 month and takes a lot more than 1 year.

That's why I said "if we start getting rain like this more often".

0

ObjectiveDark40 t1_j3zkht5 wrote

>rain like this

Meaning flooding every 7 years...but I guess the "more often" negates the 7 years part so what you want is just torrential flooding more often?

−11

impulsekash t1_j3x1ry5 wrote

The problem is the drought and wildfires killed the vegetation that stabilized the soil. Now the water runoffs the soil or worse makes it unstable causing landslides.

61

CPUforU t1_j41y5xl wrote

What's the sciency term for this process?

1

katman43043 t1_j3x002y wrote

100% a bunch of sermons are going on about how this is God’s wrath or some other malarkey

56

[deleted] t1_j3x1oiw wrote

[removed]

79

Fender088 t1_j3y4tr7 wrote

Reminds me of the Always Sunny quote: "I'm playing both sides so that I always come out on top."

19

WildYams t1_j3yepqp wrote

Actually when the hurricanes hit Florida, right wingers were claiming it was the Biden administration controlling the weather to punish Ron DeSantis, but I guess storms hitting California are "god's wrath".

19

Taman_Should t1_j3z1srs wrote

Imagine having a persecution fetish so strong, it forced you to basically argue that Biden is more powerful than God.

21

Knull_Gorr t1_j3z7nyx wrote

It's very easy to be more important than a thing that doesn't exist.

7

Taman_Should t1_j3zqigo wrote

That's not really the point though, the point is that their beliefs have no consistency. One minute they'll say God sent natural disasters, the next minute, the democrats are responsible for equally bad natural disasters.

Remember when we were young and naive enough that we thought we could argue about things based on their own supposed internal logical frameworks? Doesn't that seem quaint now?

6

BpositiveItWorks t1_j3xmk1g wrote

I know the flooding and infrastructure issues it’s causing are catastrophic and I am so sad so many have passed away, but as a resident of NorCal, I see both the negative and the positive.

The positive being we needed the moisture. To reiterate, I would rather so many in the bay were not dealing with damage to their homes and like i mentioned before the deaths and as of last night a missing 5 year old that got swept away. Just want to be clear I value life over getting rain.

Also, I’m getting hammered with snow and could use a break … it is up to my torso in my yard.

10

qtx t1_j40jije wrote

> The positive being we needed the moisture

But the thng is, the soils is so dry it's like cement. The water isn't penetrating, it just flows over it.

So it's not helping one iota.

4

BpositiveItWorks t1_j40ubs2 wrote

Im sorry to head that, that’s a huge bummer. The snow is helpful in my area.

2

Someinterestingbs-td t1_j3zqau0 wrote

Dammit I knew the tramp stamp would cause trouble but never this god what have I done lol

2

OutrageousMatter t1_j4izc1h wrote

God's wrath since 1862. That was the last time a similar event occurred.

1

[deleted] t1_j3x1h4j wrote

[removed]

97

Jak33 t1_j3xpc0z wrote

yea and it goes right into the ocean

25

anotherorphan t1_j3yhwel wrote

as rivers do

53

LargeWeinerDog t1_j3yg6sx wrote

Just tilt California up a little bit. Let it drain down south. Problem solved

78

OneWholeSoul t1_j3yyfvx wrote

Slide some folded newspaper under the Oregon border. Prop the head of the state up.

30

lunayoshi t1_j3z557t wrote

Maybe we can refill the Salton Sea that way. It's supposed to dry up in, like, 30 years or something.

5

hiimsubclavian t1_j40numr wrote

Good idea, let's save some of that water. We might need it one day.

1

TheCryptocrat t1_j3xt7st wrote

Uhhh Southern California hasn't been drying out: https://wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/anomimage.pl?calJanPpct.png

Looks like only parts of the desert are below average for the year.

47

WildYams t1_j3yf42u wrote

The headline was just poorly phrased, what the article meant is that more rain is hitting northern California while SoCal will get a break from the rain for a couple days (though it's supposed to rain here again over the weekend).

35

Vlad_the_Homeowner t1_j3ya507 wrote

The rain just stopped yesterday evening after about a week nonstop. We get two days and it picks up again through next Tuesday.

That said, it's nowhere near as bad where I am compared to some of the photos I've seen up north.

10

lunayoshi t1_j3z50b2 wrote

Yeah, it was sunny all day today here. I'm surprised the north is still getting pounded.

2

iskyoork t1_j3wua6a wrote

Climate Change isn't real. Sticks fingers in my ears, close my eyes, and lock myself in a climate-controlled building.

44

noodlyarms t1_j3xi670 wrote

It was snowing in Buffalo! Global warming must be a liberal hoax!

25

iskyoork t1_j3xie91 wrote

I mean they did say Global Warming, and shit it is colder than ever here in Florida so that must be false!

5

noodlyarms t1_j3xj7zt wrote

Then they'll see news of record breaking heatwaves killing hundreds in Europe and go, "Hurdur, they deserve it for being Marxist environmentalists."

5

iskyoork t1_j3xjlgj wrote

Yup, They are callous and cold. Zero Compassion for others and reveling in others' misery. I just can't with these people anymore.

6

macross1984 t1_j3y89ay wrote

This morning I read my local paper and it predicted 600% rainfall compared to the past.

18

WholeintheAll t1_j3x7lwk wrote

It's ok they will be stealing it from norcal soon enough, those pools are so important and all.

14

GreppMichaels t1_j3xj0bk wrote

The people stealing water from norcal are the almond farmers...

51

WholeintheAll t1_j3xp5xu wrote

With oat milk takes far less, land, water, and resources to produce. Almonds were always just a get-rich-quick scheme.

12

RedlyrsRevenge t1_j3xz0h9 wrote

Almonds aren't making anybody rich right now. Prices are way down and so is the water allocations.
A lot of orchards are getting ripped out right now for row crops and alfalfa.

17

AfraidStill2348 t1_j3yfxov wrote

Lots of almond wood for sale right now

4

veringer t1_j3zr5xa wrote

I do a lot of woodworking (east coast) and have never seen almond lumber on the market. I assume it's similar to cherry, plum, apple, or pear? Curious to see what people are doing with it.

3

AfraidStill2348 t1_j3zx767 wrote

It's very hard so maybe cutting boards or decorations.

Primarily people use it for smoking/grilling or burning for heat.

3

WholeintheAll t1_j3yd943 wrote

Good. Seriously stop stealing water.

1

garibond1 t1_j3zk3ak wrote

Alfalfa specifically is not much better

8

WholeintheAll t1_j3zktev wrote

I won't commit on what I don't know about and alfafa is one of those things but I am sick of the vegans screaming almond milk that is bad for the planet, environment and our water resources. If you want to go that way it has to be oat milk for the resource trade to even out.

0

Visionbuilder t1_j3xcomg wrote

Don’t forget the hundred golf courses in Palm Springs…

15

silky_johnson123 t1_j3yn5et wrote

golf courses make up like 9% of total water usage and every course down here is using reclaimed water. they're not the problem.

8

DeadwoodNative t1_j3x5plz wrote

This may be a stupid question, but are there expanded/enhanced statewide efforts in California to collect and divert flood waters to reservoirs? I know you can’t easily control flood waters but with all the resources and technology and brain power of that state, I’ve never heard of any brilliant collection diversion efforts. For instance I read a few months ago they plan on covering canals to lessen solar evaporation, covering them with solar panels to also generate energy. Sounds like a genius win/win. Any genius collection efforts?

5

InsuranceToTheRescue t1_j3xbawb wrote

I think the issue is, how often does California get torrential rains like this (personally, I don't know)? Diverting them to reservoirs is possible, but that's a lot of expensive infrastructure to build and maintain for something that maybe only happens once every 50 years.

15

DeadwoodNative t1_j3xqfzl wrote

would def be interesting to study feasibility based on recent and changing patterns, but it seems every year or 2 there’s serious flooding somewhere in the state.

and if the reports are true about exorbitant water allocated to almond growing… a gallon per nut or whatever; I like almonds but that’s ridiculous

5

Friedumb t1_j3xzzlh wrote

Its in the works as of right now.

https://www.kcra.com/article/big-new-california-reservoir-on-track-for-large-federal-loan-sites/39465488

I believe the plan is to use wind/solar to pump water to the new reservoir and then utilize hydro to capture energy from the release.

Another decent project can be found here: https://apnews.com/article/floods-climate-science-business-wildlife-502590d610a78cb027baf260e79b8555

By recreating the old floodplains we can increase recharge while reducing flood risk. The issue with this project is that farmers are reluctant to give up land adjacent to rivers due to water rights.

There is hope, it just requires everyone coming together for a single goal. Ok maybe there isnt much hope...

4

PhoenixReborn t1_j3y3hwz wrote

There was a segment on our local NPR station the other day about this.

https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101891818/flooding-during-a-drought-rethinking-californias-water-system

One of the things they mentioned was having to strike a balance between pumping water from the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta for human use, and maintaining enough water flow to the bay to prevent backfill with salt water. One of the guests wrote an op-ed arguing for intelligent land use to allow water to refill the water table.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/opinion/california-flood-atmospheric-river-drought.html

10

Johns-schlong t1_j3yjbgb wrote

Depopulate the rural areas, reintroduce the beavers, destroy the levies and turn most of it back into flood plains. We don't own the land, and we can't keep disrupting it. Our kids only get what we leave them. More human intervention isn't the answer.

1

hellomondays t1_j423u5a wrote

I think it's the same segment, one of the guest talks about how snowpack is key to the water system for North Cal, so unfortunately all this rain isn't going to make much of a long-term difference

1

Mad_V t1_j3y3rbo wrote

Yes, construction is underway on the Sites Resivoir in the Sacramento Valley.

2

The_Meek t1_j3zldn5 wrote

Another notable issue is that the first duty of these reservoirs is flood control (and even if you deprioritize flood control, you need to maintain the integrity of the dam itself). That means that collecting rainwater mid season isn’t actually all that helpful—most of the dams will be doing large releases to bring their levels down over the next few days and weeks. You can’t absorb the large surge from a flooding event without unused reservoir capacity. Bad things happen when reservoirs are full with more rain on the way, eg Oroville 2017. Once the forecast dries up and snow starts to melt, the reservoirs will shift to maximizing stored volume for the dry season (vs maintaining flood control capacity for the rainy season).

2

pattydickens t1_j3xbxur wrote

"With all the resources and technology and brain power" they should have been building desalination plants for the last 20 years.

0

DeadwoodNative t1_j3xpoxo wrote

Totally agree 100% They def dropped the ball there. Guessing some of it was ‘NIMBY’. Know the costs were gonna be ridiculous. That is def one area CA needs to pull there head out and deregulate a bit. Maher had a horror story of like 4 yrs to get his solar plans approved and built. There was a big story of proposals to build temp transitional housing to ease homeless fiasco, and it was like the price of a luxury apt per unit. Come fucking on! I’ve also heard disposal of salt byproduct would be a nightmare. Almost seems harnessing their reappearing ‘atmospheric river’ would be just as ‘easy’

−2

kazyllis t1_j3xszkj wrote

We built a desal plant in San Diego. It cost a ton of money and only gives us 10% of our daily water usage, while being criticized by environmental groups because it impacts the ocean life. Still glad we have it but it would take a lost of these plants to support SD, and 4 times that amount to support LA.

14

Moose_Nuts t1_j3wxm0v wrote

Yeah, I'm salty. We were promised so much rain in SoCal but probably got less than a quarter of an inch.

Time to buckle up and head toward another hot, dry summer.

4

GreppMichaels t1_j3xiu2f wrote

Where exactly do you live in SoCal? The streets have literally been flooding here in Hollywood up until yesterday afternoon...

47

[deleted] t1_j3xzhpp wrote

[deleted]

−7

sloughfoot t1_j3ybtae wrote

Have you gone outside at all? It’s been raining non stop in LA. My local friends have been saying “it’s never like this”.

12

lasvegasnv11 t1_j3yx52i wrote

I live in the South Bay, a little north of you and we definitely got rain and high winds. I'm guessing you havent went outside or opened your blinds in a while. And I looked it up, Long Beach received a little over 3" of rain since January started. Thats a lot for 10 days in Long Beach.

7

GreppMichaels t1_j3y8i4g wrote

Do you have half inch curbs then? I thought you guys got less than a quarter of an inch of rain...

6

fishchipslopez t1_j3xudn2 wrote

Where in SoCal? I’m in the IE and it’s been raining for like 2 weeks now

14

Moose_Nuts t1_j3xz7jo wrote

Long Beach. Lots of clouds and drizzle, but it seems like the storms part to go north or south of us.

−2

TheBrokenSwagger t1_j3xigyb wrote

Different story in Nor Cal. We're getting entire towns flooded, trees coming down, and lightning/thunder. Last week I drove from LA to Sacramento and right as I get into Fresno, a bunch of Caltrans signs warn of floods and to take it slow while cars going 100 MPH were blowing right past me.

8

rettaelin t1_j3xojrg wrote

I read this as north Carolina. Stupid brain.

2

Clouds2589 t1_j3y0i9z wrote

Funny, here I am sitting in southern California, after just weathering a huge rainstorm yesterday. Guess in reality I'm actually bone dry, who knew?

2

Fleaslayer t1_j3ytonv wrote

If you read the article, it was just saying that it's still raining up north, but we get a few days off in the south.

9

Clouds2589 t1_j408dlm wrote

S'ajoke referencing the title. I wasn't serious

0

Jakedxn3 t1_j3z3wk1 wrote

Love all you guys in the comments who only read the headline

6

Generation_ABXY t1_j3zbbwk wrote

Well, well, well... how the (water)tables have turned.

2

Jklipsch t1_j3z5txg wrote

I love the rain NorCal is getting and wish it would continue (though not at this condensed pace) to actually make a huge difference for the drought.

Cali is soft. Complain about drought. Complain about a couple of storms. And what is up with CA drivers forgetting how to drive with a bit of rain.

−10

Bthejerk t1_j3wxbha wrote

They should save every drop and stop killing the Colorado river.

−18