ScienceCasts: California Drought

California is experiencing a historic drought--by some measures the deepest in more than 100 years. NASA researchers are investigating a number of explanations for what the underlying cause may be.

[hipelon]

Gracias, Agustina. Ya no estamos disgustados. Hablo por mi.

[samrulz]

it has been abnormally dry here on the west coast of Canada as well this year.

[BarbaraGordonlacer]

So sad..!  I haven't been out there for many years, but It's sad now what is happening there.  I wish the rain there would continue longer...

[spodermanpls]

"The 2013–2014 California drought was initiated by an anomalous high-amplitude ridge system. The anomalous ridge was investigated using reanalysis data and the Community Earth System Model (CESM). It was found that the ridge emerged from continual sources of Rossby wave energy in the western North Pacific starting in late summer and subsequently intensified into winter. The ridge generated a surge of wave energy downwind and deepened further the trough over the northeast U.S., forming a dipole. The dipole and associated circulation pattern is not linked directly with either El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) or Pacific Decadal Oscillation; instead, it is correlated with a type of ENSO precursor. The connection between the dipole and ENSO precursor has become stronger since the 1970s, and this is attributed to increased greenhouse gas loading as simulated by the CESM. Therefore, *THERE IS A TRACEABLE ANTHROPOGENIC WARMING FOOTPRINT* [emphasis added] in the enormous intensity of the anomalous ridge during winter 2013–2014 and the associated drought."


If you don't trust scientists based on your own personal ideology then you are a fucking idiot.

[marbogbr]

It's weather it will change naturally. We had drought in south east England for last 5 years or more, Water board fitted us all with meters and said this would last forever and we can't take water for granted. Now we need a boat to get to work. Of coarse the water meters stayed.

[brandonie]

Its been raining for 3 days straight in the Sacramento valley, hopefully that makes a difference

[Omnipotent]

Can't we change the course of the jet stream?

[PhantomQueenOne]

Where I live in Arizona we are in the freeze-your-ass-off in the winter, bake-it-off in the summer cycle. Normal for the part of Arizona I live in. It should be mild four-season weather, now we go from winter strait to summer.

[skylinevspec]

Add inner Queensland, Australia to this. So much farmers are resorting to shooting their animals because no one wants to buy them and it costs so much to transport them and feed them

[SolPhoebusApollo]

Those pictures of the bare mountains without snow was quite creepy to behold, in thinking about all those people on the west coast, and how are they going to get the water they need?...

[phillipkeegan]

Why can't the excess snow in the east and Midwest be shipped west?
They need to build desalination stations along the

[cammag]

The author/production editor of this and all sciencecasts that I can remember is a Dr Tony Phillips. You may have seen Dr Tony Phillips on spaceweather.com also. He is a strong advocate of the Earth to Sky Calculus group on that site and always details each launch that they have. He is also actively and directly involved with them.

Now, watching this video you may have noticed that Earth to Sky Calculus president's surname is Phillips.

Its fine to promote what you kid is doing on your own website. It is pretty damn ordinary to use your position with NASA to push them to a global audience.

[Bloodredtyrant]

You guys want snow? SHOVEL IT OFF MY DRIVEWAY! I'M OHIOAN AND I'M SICK OF THIS GODDAMN WINTER! For fuck's sake, we're getting nailed one after another snow storms. Even Alaska is enjoying 40 degree weather!

[bourniboy]

This is why I like living in Ohio. Sure, the weather can suck in the winter, but there is always water.

[ValiantVision]

i love these high school kids! it's a shame my generation and my parents generation care more about SUV's and big screen TVs than the environment.

[omegagarry]

O GOD HELP US WERE DROWNING IN RAIN\\
Love Elk Grove Sacramento

[farmrdave]

A bit late with this video.  It is snowing, raining, roads closed. I am happy to hear that NASA isn't yet promoting the global warming hoax.  All we collectively know about earth, solar system, and the cosmos shows that everything is changing all the time.  Why does anyone expect this winter to be like last winter?

[suzymcneil]

Actually my idea is very similar.  Collect snow from Canada.  Bring Tanker trucks up here to keep water for the fires that happen every year.  This wont help the Drinking  problem, but when the inevitale wild fires break out.  You'll have H2O

[snorman]

I lived in SoCal about 40 years ago.  The color of the surrounding hills was one of two options - yellow from dry, dead plants, or black, from recently burned dry, dead plants.

Now we have people trying to use this environment as proof of "climate change".  There was a guy on the radio the other day claiming that the amount of fires in CA was proof of global warming, even though most are started by people accidentally.  The last fire was started by people trying to keep warm because they were cold. LOL!

News flash, CA has always been dry, some years worse than others.

[waro]

MUCHAS GRACIAS POR MANTENERNOS TAN BIEN INFORMADOS ( R ESPECTO AL AVANCE DE LOS EFECTOS DE QUIEENES ESTAN EXPRIMIENDO NUESTRA CASA, )..y CADA VEZ SON MÁS