California has been swimming in an atmospheric river to the point the state has a historic-level snowpack.
Drought-weary California is entering February with deeper snowpack than it has seen in four decades, reflecting a healthy boost in the state’s supply of water but also spurring concerns about dryness, flooding and other potential hazards in the months ahead.Statewide Sierra snowpack was 205% of normal for the date on Wednesday, said officials with the Department of Water Resources during the second snow survey of the season.Even more promising, snowpack was 128% of its April 1 average, referring to the end-of-season date when snowpack in California is typically at its deepest.“Our snowpack is off to an incredible start, and it’s exactly what California needs to really help break from our ongoing drought,” DWR snow survey manager Sean de Guzman said. The state’s snowpack is currently outpacing the winter of 1982-83 — “the wettest year on record dating back about 40 years,” he said.
In a shocking move, the Los Angles Times actually published real science related to the wet season that we are experiencing on the West Coast, and allowed real experts to explain the state’s wet-dry seasons are cyclic.
As California emerges from a two-week bout of deadly atmospheric rivers, a number of climate researchers say the recent storms appear to be typical of the intense, periodic rains the state has experienced throughout its history and not the result of global warming.Although scientists are still studying the size and severity of storms that killed 19 people and caused up to $1 billion in damage, initial assessments suggest the destruction had more to do with California’s historic drought-to-deluge cycles, mountainous topography and aging flood infrastructure than it did with climate-altering greenhouse gasses.Although the media and some officials were quick to link a series of powerful storms to climate change, researchers interviewed by The Times said they had yet to see evidence of that connection. Instead, the unexpected onslaught of rain and snow after three years of punishing drought appears akin to other major storms that have struck California every decade or more since experts began keeping records in the 1800s.
In light of California’s new regulations prohibiting the sale of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles, we better hope this is a long, wet cycle. We are going to need lots of it to fight electric vehicle battery fires.
A Tesla Model S “spontaneously caught fire” while traveling down a highway in Rancho Cordova, California, prompting firefighters to respond to the scene, officials said.On Saturday afternoon, crew members from the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District responded to a Tesla that was “engulfed in flames” due to a battery fire, officials said in a tweet.Video posted by Metro Fire of Sacramento showed firefighters hosing the vehicle down as other cars drove by. Photos of the aftermath of the blaze showed the totally charred front hood of the vehicle.Firefighters used 6,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames as two fire engines, a water tender and a ladder truck were called to assist. Crews used jacks to access the underside to extinguish and cool the battery, fire officials said.
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