{"id":302563,"date":"2024-02-18T10:43:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T09:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=302563"},"modified":"2024-02-18T10:43:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T09:43:34","slug":"california-enjoys-the-northwests-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=302563","title":{"rendered":"California Enjoys the Northwest’s Water"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

From The Cliff Mass Weather Blog<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago, media outlets were headlining strident messages that California had moved into a “megadrought” and that there was little hope for relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story after story claimed that global warming had permanently changed the situation and that California’s reservoirs would remain unfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Fast forward two years and these apocalyptic warnings appear more like a rendition of chicken-little than reliable climate science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Massive rainfall has hit the Golden State, while we in the Northwest are enjoying a warmer-than-normal winter with less snowpack than normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is the percent of average precipitation for the last month over the western U.S.\u00a0 Some parts of California have received over 400% of normal!<\/p>\n\n\n

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

To illustrate the soggy California situation, below is the accumulated precipitation at Los Angeles since October 1 (the current water year). Brown indicates normal values.\u00a0 \u00a0LA is now running about 40% above normal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Compare this to Seattle (below).\u00a0 We are slightly above normal.\u00a0 \u00a0Precipitation-wise we running nearly exactly on climatology.\u00a0 \u00a0That may surprise some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As I have described in several previous blogs, we are now experiencing El Nino conditions, which tend to make California very wet, while our area generally experiences near-normal precipitation.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest forecast of accumulated precipitation through Tuesday shows a continuation of the pattern with heavy precipitation expected in California.\u00a0 And yes….only modest precipitation over Washington.\u00a0 Oregon enjoys a piece of this wet bounty.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

The origin of this wet situation is a strong El Nino low center off of Califonia, illustrated by the upper level (500-hPa pressure, about 18,000 ft) at 10 PM on Monday.\u00a0 The purple shading indicates an unusually strong low.\u00a0 I am getting tired of this pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

The current extended prediction of accumulated precipitation through April 1 by the European Center model suggests this pattern is not going away, with very wet conditions over California, but drier than normal in the Washington Cascades (see below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

But what about the Northwest snowpack during the next few months?\u00a0 \u00a0 I will leave that to an upcoming blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Two years ago, media outlets were headlining strident messages that California had moved into a “megadrought” and that there was little hope for relief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":302576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Two years ago, media outlets were headlining strident messages that California had moved into a \"megadrought\" and that there was little hope for relief.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"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":[691818068,691818087,691826990,691826989],"class_list":["post-302563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-california","tag-global-warming","tag-massive-rainfall","tag-megadrought","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1gI3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":427253,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=427253","url_meta":{"origin":302563,"position":0},"title":"Claim: 99.999% of Climate Scientists Agree Australia was Cooler in the 1890s","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/21\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Senator Malcolm Roberts schooling the green Aussie Senate Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change Inquiry on the evidence.","rel":"","context":"In \"1880s\"","block_context":{"text":"1880s","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=1880s"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-Australias-Federation-Drought-spanning-1895-to-1903.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-Australias-Federation-Drought-spanning-1895-to-1903.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-Australias-Federation-Drought-spanning-1895-to-1903.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-Australias-Federation-Drought-spanning-1895-to-1903.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":240330,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=240330","url_meta":{"origin":302563,"position":1},"title":"LIA Megadroughts In India","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/18\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The prospect of a repeat of those LIA megadroughts is truly terrifying.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/01500561-f2.jpeg?fit=1050%2C761&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/01500561-f2.jpeg?fit=1050%2C761&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/01500561-f2.jpeg?fit=1050%2C761&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/01500561-f2.jpeg?fit=1050%2C761&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/01500561-f2.jpeg?fit=1050%2C761&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":343639,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=343639","url_meta":{"origin":302563,"position":2},"title":"New Study: 21st Century Megadrought In The SW USA Caused By 45 Years Of East\/Central Pacific Cooling","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/18\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Climate models failed to simulate the observed 1970-2014 Pacific Ocean cooling. 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