The worst drought in California in modern times will not break until at least late this fall with the return of the annual rainy season, if then.
Randy Mann and I still see a strengthening El Nino event in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean by late October into early to mid December. This could mean a juicy "Pineapple Connection" developing between Hawaii and the central California by sometime around Thanksgiving Day, November 27.
In the meantime, however, things will only worsen with the continuation of the six-month-plus dry season in the Golden State (see map). Many farmers in the central valleys will be forced to let their lands remain fallow during the summer growing season due to the serious lack of vital irrigation water supplies. The state has cut water deliveries to farmers and cities alike by nearly 95 percent in the rest of 2014.
Most counties in California have received less precipitation in the past three years since 2011 than they normally measure in a single rainy season. For example, downtown Los Angeles has gauged less total moisture in the past 36 months, about 15 inches, than the city of Pensacola, Florida reported in just 24 hours on April 30, nearly 20 inches, which led to widespread lowland flooding, one wild weather "extreme" to the other, part of a disastrous global cycle of wild weather.
What makes matters worse waterwise in California and other areas of the parched Far West, is that many current water users with "old rights" contracts are able to buy as much water as they need at the prevailing high market rates. Many of these farmers, ranchers and other businesses like golf courses and amusement parks are not even required to have water meters or monitor the amounts of water that they use. It doesn’t seem fair.
