I’m sure we’re all in agreement that dams on rivers are ecological disasters so let’s get away from that. We can build storage reservoirs by find natural depressions in the land and pumping water to them. Washington state has Banks lake which is a holding reservoir that was a dry coulee and dams were built at the top and bottom. water is pumped into it from the grand coulee dam.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banks_Lake

>exactly. Why is California in a drought after they’ve sucked the ground completely dry of natural resources for tens of years. California’s natural resources can’t support the number of people they’re trying to house.

If you drive interstate-5 from Los Angeles to northern California you will see signs from the farm lobby essentially saying we should do to the San Joaquin River Delta what we've done to the Colorado river -- use every drop of fresh water so that none is left to flow to the sea.

I thought there was going to be a text graphic that said, "because their idiots". Obviously not. That is an example (to me, maybe I'm an idiot) of a graphic that is not particularly informative.

California's natural resources can't support the acres of crops the investor class is trying to profit from

It’s poorly written. Chatbot?

In terms of surface water, it’s over (for now). But groundwater is what takes multiple years to recharge, and even then some of the capacity has been permanently lost due to over-pumping, so no matter what there’s going to be less groundwater to fall back on when the next dry spell hits.

You mean, continue expanding the capacity of some reservoirs. Because, as far as I know, we’ve already built all the dams that are really possible.

Unless you’re talking about Yosemite? 🤨

I think he's trying to point out how stupid it is to make a claim today that the state is still abnormally dry, after snow and rain, when you're making that claim using data that doesn't include said snow and rain.

Yes came into say the same thing. The ONLY reason why we’re potentially still in a drought at this point is because we simply do not have enough infrastructure to capture all the rain/runoff. We are simply wasting opportunity at this point

How dare you question the narrative

Got a link for that?

Summers actually get hot in Finland. We have four seasons...

Yep lol. The heaviest of the rains and snow fell on Feb and it’s been raining every single week since January, including this weekend which saw several more inches of rain and snow.

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California has a water storage problem. Start building reservoirs and quit playing the victim.

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Lmao saying that with your username

I don’t know what the hell youre talking about - I work in landscape architecture so I was trying to explain things based on knowledge I’ve accrued - was I writing to a woman or do I sound condescending in that manner? Bc that wasn’t my intent and I find your comment to be pretty random, it was simply a metaphor.

I thought the point of Reddit was sort of to share knowledge and have conversations, I particularly love when people share expertise. I’m not certain why what I wrote is mansplaining

Why’d you comment this on my comment when everyone above is literally typing out how aquifers work and how water tables function. Why’d you decide to comment that on mine.. I thought the water glass comment was a good metaphor for why an area can still be in drought despite getting a lot of rain.

Yeah I’m not certain why they’d say ninety nine percent - What I meant is that perhaps they’re just using it as an expression rather than scientific data.

The most recent I’ve seen show that something like seventy three percent is still in drought - these are most likely areas with poor perk rates and infiltration/water management.

Snow pack is looking good

That makes it even worse.

>Snow blanketed California the last weekend of February, only weeks after it was pummeled by torrential rains. But these historic storms barely made a dent in a daily reality for most Californians — a years-long, expansive drought. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 99.39% of the state is still abnormally dry or in drought...

Despite the rains and snow in February, the state was still mostly in a state of drought in January?!?

One good year does not eliminate a long term drought. Did anyone learn anything in junior high and high school?

The irony of someone posting really stale and incorrect data in the "data is beautiful" sub... ONLY ACCURATE DATA IS BEAUTIFUL

Mansplain much?

There was absolutely no reason for the article authors to use data lagged by over a month and a half. Pretty much every CA drought map site and water tracking site updates daily.