California’s Northern Sierras have set an all-time record of 89.7 inches of precipitation for the 2016-7 year, as new storms are about to push the record higher.
(That record was set despite the Union of Concerned Scientists’ website still declaring that global climate change will shrink snowfall and cause the oceans to rise.)
The Sacramento regional office of the National Weather Service told Breitbart News that their eight-station Northern Pacific Precipitation Index, which has scientifically measured rain and snowfall in the Sierra Mountains since 1921, passed the previous of 1982-83 record of 88.5 inches early on April 13.
Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have declared a continuing Winter Weather Advisory for the Sierras and Southern Cascade Mountains, as a Pacific low pressure system is bringing three storms over the next 5 days, including a potentially significant storm on Easter Sunday. They expect heavy rain and 30-mile per hour winds in lower elevations, and two–to-six inches of new snowfall above the 3,000-foot level. Rural mountain areas are being warned to expect hazardous road conditions, requiring tire chains.
Every Northern California reservoir is now above its historical average for this time of year, with Shasta at 95 percent full, Trinity at 93 percent full, and Oroville at 84 percent full.
The Weather Service’s river team told Breitbart News that with California’s snowpack at 176 percent of normal — the third-highest in history — late season storms bringing cool weather have prevented widespread flooding by reducing the snowmelt for this time of year. But rain from Wednesday’s storm forced California Department of Water Resources engineers to double Shasta Dam’s water outflow to 20,000 cubic feet per second on April 12, and will force the re-opening Orville Dam’s structurally impaired spillway on April 14.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has warned for years that California’s infrastructure gap is the worst in the United States. The ASCE estimated in 2013 that California had a $65 billion investment deficit in providing an adequate level of public infrastructure. The ASCE’s annual “Infrastructure Report Card” awarded a “D” grade for levees and flood control as California’s most neglected sector.
But California Democrats and their environmentalist fellow travelers are still apparently convinced that the 2016-17 water-year record is a one-time fluke. According to the opening page of the Union of Concerned Scientists, global warming in the Western United States will continue to cause severe droughts, because “temperatures are higher, snowpack is lower, forests are drier, and sea levels are encroaching on our coasts.”