2008 Woodie Awards
Calif. seeking water sources
Dhawani Parekh| U-WIRE
Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: News
Solving the water drought is a crisis for the Metropolitan Water District; however, for scientists, water droughts have been an existing part of Southern California's history.
The drought is also prevalent in Southeastern states like Georgia, Alabama and Florida.
Local cities like Long Beach have already begun implementing water restrictions.
California is a desert whose nature is unpredictable, said James Miller of the geography department at California State University Fullerton.
It is hard to say if global warming affects the water level, but at the same time, it is hard to rule out global warming.
California gets its water from the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada Mountain range through the State Water Project.
"One acre-foot is a size of a football field-one foot deep. California used to get 3.7 million acre-foot of water. Now it gets 3.3 million acre-foot," said Anthony Fellow, vice chair of MWD and professor at CSUF. "The problem is how to make up for the 0.4 million acre-foot of water with an increasing population."
Miller noted in his research that there has been shift in the atmosphere circulation pattern.
About 25 years ago, California experienced very wet weather. There was a lot of rain and there were many storms.
However, in the last five to seven years, there has been a distinct shift in weather.
There are two reasons for this. One reason for the shift is the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a long-term ocean fluctuation of the Pacific Ocean.
It has a warm and cold phase and the Pacific Ocean has entered a cold phase.
It changes every decade, according to Miller.
The other reason for the shift is El-Nino-Southern Oscillation. Currently, California is experiencing La Nina -- dry weather, which is heading into a mild-moderate phase.
That means there is less than a 10 percent chance of having a "normal" winter. When these two factors match up, the result is dry weather.
The drought is also prevalent in Southeastern states like Georgia, Alabama and Florida.
Local cities like Long Beach have already begun implementing water restrictions.
California is a desert whose nature is unpredictable, said James Miller of the geography department at California State University Fullerton.
It is hard to say if global warming affects the water level, but at the same time, it is hard to rule out global warming.
California gets its water from the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada Mountain range through the State Water Project.
"One acre-foot is a size of a football field-one foot deep. California used to get 3.7 million acre-foot of water. Now it gets 3.3 million acre-foot," said Anthony Fellow, vice chair of MWD and professor at CSUF. "The problem is how to make up for the 0.4 million acre-foot of water with an increasing population."
Miller noted in his research that there has been shift in the atmosphere circulation pattern.
About 25 years ago, California experienced very wet weather. There was a lot of rain and there were many storms.
However, in the last five to seven years, there has been a distinct shift in weather.
There are two reasons for this. One reason for the shift is the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a long-term ocean fluctuation of the Pacific Ocean.
It has a warm and cold phase and the Pacific Ocean has entered a cold phase.
It changes every decade, according to Miller.
The other reason for the shift is El-Nino-Southern Oscillation. Currently, California is experiencing La Nina -- dry weather, which is heading into a mild-moderate phase.
That means there is less than a 10 percent chance of having a "normal" winter. When these two factors match up, the result is dry weather.
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