{"id":255697,"date":"2023-05-03T09:41:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T07:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=255697"},"modified":"2023-05-03T09:41:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T07:41:33","slug":"california-from-mega-drought-to-the-big-melt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=255697","title":{"rendered":"California: from Mega-Drought to \u201cThe Big Melt\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opinion by Kip Hansen \u2013 2 May 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

California, the state of my birth, childhood and my familiar stomping ground throughout my university years \u2013 just a year ago claiming itself engulfed by a millennial-scale mega-drought \u2014 is now worried about too much water:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mega-Drought Is Over But California Faces a New Threat: Floods<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, because the topic is weather \u2013 which nearly everyone in California thinks equals Climate which equals Climate Change which equals Climate Crisis which equals Climate Catastrophe   \u2014 this weather phenomenon must be a threat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest version of this new threat is \u201cThe Big Melt\u201d \u2013 cheerfully promoted and megaphoned by \u2013 well, nearly every news outlet in California and is echoed in the national press:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBCNews:  <\/em>\u201cThe big melt is now here\u201d: California braces for floods<\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA Today: \u2018The Big Melt\u2019: California braces for flooding as heat wave takes aim at state<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yale Climate Connections:  \u201cCalifornia\u2019s Big Melt kicks off, likely to cause floods\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sky News:  \u201cThe big melt: Crushed houses, trapped cars and the threat of floods\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, of course, the re-birth of Tulare Lake:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York Times:  \u201cThe Resurrection of Tulare Lake\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

California Local:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cDestruction or Reclamation? Lake Tulare Reborn\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The plentiful rain that fell in California through the last few months have ended California\u2019s long-term drought for now, but has also left the mountains covered in snow, tens of feet deep.  In many places, twice the normal amount of snow with twice the normal amount of water equivalent.  As that snow melts, the creeks and rivers will flow with far more water than usually seen.   Reservoirs, many already being purposefully held at their desired maximum levels for this time of year<\/a>, will receive more and more water \u2013 that water either has to either be retained in the reservoir, or released downstream to already saturated areas.  The Oroville Reservoir barely escaped a major disaster<\/a> when water levels were not lowered early and far enough in the spring of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cBig Melt\u201d is based on fears of the possibility of a very warm spring which could cause a rapid melt of the snowpack.  This threat is being widely promoted<\/a> by a Climate Feedback<\/em> contributor  Daniel Swain<\/a>, a climate scientist at UCLA.  [ A Google Search for \u201cDaniel Swain and Big Melt\u201d returns almost a million results.  More on Swain<\/a> here. ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am from California, born and raised there.  The High Sierras were a huge part of my childhood: camping and hiking, six kids under 16 hiking (my brothers and three cousins and I) from Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite south down the valleys on the John Muir trail and then up over Mt. Whitney to Lone Pine. [ Using this route<\/a> ]   The Yosemite Valley meadows which are covered with campgrounds and tourists in season are still wild and beautiful.  But with the spring come floods and the California press was awash with news that \u201cMost of Yosemite Valley will close starting Friday, April 28, at 10 pm, due to a forecast of flooding.\u201d<\/strong><\/a>    Flooding in the spring is perfectly normal for Yosemite Valley in the spring. And is fully expected, every single year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How long has this been happening? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since forever.   But one of the best description of this magnificent natural phenomenon was written by John Muir<\/a> himself \u2013 about the flood of December 1871, and was originally published in the June 1875 issue of The Overland Monthly<\/a><\/em> and substantially revised as Chapter XI, \u201cThe River Floods,\u201d in The Mountains of California<\/a><\/em> (1894).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full original story (which is much better than the revised version published in The Mountains of California<\/em>) can be read here<\/a>, supplied by the Library of America<\/a>. [ you can download a .pdf copy here<\/a> ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some excerpts, starting on the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0of December, 1871:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Note:\u00a0 Hutching\u2019s and Black\u2019s were two hotels operating in the Yosemite Valley in the 1870s.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The links for the full original piece: <\/strong>read here<\/a>, supplied by the Library of America. [ or you can download a .pdf copy here<\/a> ] <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # # # #<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author\u2019s Comment:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yosemite Valley and the surrounding Sierras are magnificent and utterly priceless.\u00a0 John Muir was the prime mover in seeing that they were protected as\u00a0a National Park<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tuolumne Meadows campground is currently\u00a0closed through 2024\/2025 for re-development<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0It regularly floods and campsites are washed away<\/a>.\u00a0 Other Yosemite campgrounds, on the flat alpine meadows on each side of the Merced River, flood nearly every spring. \u00a0Since 2007, the Merced at Pohono Bridge has\u00a0exceeded flood stage<\/a>\u00a0more than a dozen times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

John Muir uses the term \u201cthe meadows\u201d, but he is not referring to Tuolumne Meadows (circled in green at the right) but the meadows along the Merced River in Yosemite Valley (circled in yellow), downstream from Glacier Point.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yosemite Valley is a natural wonder \u2013 if you haven\u2019t seen it, put it on your Bucket List.  When my father was in his last years, I took him for one last look, driving from Los Angeles up through the deserts east of the Sierras and then west through into the Sierra at Tuolumne and then on down and through the loop in the Yosemite Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quit worrying about the weather and \u201cThanks for reading.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of course, because the topic is weather \u2013 which nearly everyone in California thinks equals Climate which equals Climate Change which equals Climate Crisis which equals Climate Catastrophe \u00a0\u00a0\u2014 this weather phenomenon\u00a0must be a threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":255716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819274,691818068,691818056,691818102,691819273,691819272],"class_list":{"0":"post-255697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-big-melt","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-climate-crisis","12":"tag-mega-drought","13":"tag-yosemite-valley","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ooTulare.jpeg?fit=1066%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-14w9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":240105,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=240105","url_meta":{"origin":255697,"position":0},"title":"Too Wet? 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