{"id":219453,"date":"2010-01-20T11:23:03","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T16:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/opinion\/story\/2474225.html#mi_rss=Opinion"},"modified":"2010-01-20T11:23:03","modified_gmt":"2010-01-20T16:23:03","slug":"editorial-storm-season-is-here-with-a-bang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/219453","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: Storm season is here, with a bang"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThe dome of the state Capitol is refracted through raindrops during a break in Monday’s showers. Rain is expected for most of the week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What is the perfect storm for California? <\/p>\n

There is no such thing. Every weather system that pushes up flowers also doles out punishment. <\/p>\n

Yet for farmers and others vulnerable to drought, the current storms look promising. <\/p>\n

After months of middling precipitation amid predictions of a big El Niño year, the Pacific Ocean is finally delivering a fire hose of water to a state that has weathered several dry years. <\/p>\n

To top it off, the amped-up jet stream has delivered cold storms – producing not just rain but snow. While some parts of the Sierra haven’t seen huge accumulations yet, the overall precipitation has been robust, with more on the way.<\/p>\n

Near the city of Mount Shasta, one weather station recorded 3 inches of rain in the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday afternoon. Above Lake Oroville, another station recorded nearly 3 inches of rain in 24 hours. If that keeps up, these large, depleted reservoirs will rise quickly – although filling them will take many more weeks of wetness.<\/p>\n

And that is the delicate balance California confronts. Drought and floods are recurring themes, and sometimes they can happen in the same year. In 1995, the state started out somewhat dry, but then got doused with about 13 inches of rain in a week. The result was record-breaking floods up and down the coast, and high water suddenly surging down through the levee-lined rivers of Sacramento. <\/p>\n

Residents of Southern California have so far borne the brunt of the recent storms, with mudslides a persistent threat. Across the state, residents are dealing with power outages, flash floods and downed trees. Even rougher weather is predicted for today. <\/p>\n

So what would be the perfect storm?<\/p>\n

It would produce lots of snow in the Sierra, and rain that would fall gently, but persistently, for several weeks. It would fill up the state’s reservoirs and percolate into aquifers, but it wouldn’t cause mudslides, power outages or deadly floods. <\/p>\n

Limbs would stay on trees, gutters wouldn’t get clogged and hair wouldn’t get frizzed in the high humidity. <\/p>\n

It is a nice storm to imagine. But it will never happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dome of the state Capitol is refracted through raindrops during a break in Monday’s showers. Rain is expected for most of the week. What is the perfect storm for California? There is no such thing. Every weather system that pushes up flowers also doles out punishment. Yet for farmers and others vulnerable to drought, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}