Climate Change

The Eureka County Sheriff's Office reported water over the southbound lane of State Route 278 on Wednesday afternoon. Emergency officials put out an evacuation warning as water began to encroach into neighborhoods.

Ashby, Mass., had declared a state of emergency at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, according to a Boston 25 article reposted on the town's Facebook page. The Middlesex County town received 24 to 26 inches of snow.

The U.S Drought Monitor shows conditions in the start of 2023 moved Union County out of drought concern. But, February received nearly an inch more of precipitation than average, making it the 10th wettest February on record.

All eyes remain on the small Monterey County community of Pajaro as the next storm nears, however, after water breached a levee early Saturday morning, devastating the neighborhoods and farmlands of the town.

"It depends on how much snow melt we get because that's a whole other player in this. The rain is going to be impressive, but it just depends on how warm these systems are and how much snowmelt we get."

“It now appears likely that a potentially significant and likely warm atmospheric river event will affect some portion of Northern or Central California sometime between about late Thursday and Saturday.”

Watch for transportation agencies and departments to begin looking beyond the cadre of civil engineers as they tackle social equity and previously unrealized challenges like extreme weather.

Following rare blizzard warnings in Southern California counties, plus snowfall at unusually low levels, Interstate 5 has been closed in both directions over the Grapevine.

Heavy rain and wind gusts up to 50 mph are expected on Thursday with an atmospheric river system moving through Southern California over the weekend and into next week.

National mapping efforts that compile environmental data offer a resource that can be used by government agencies of different levels to help them make data-informed planning and response decisions.

New incentives — like the ones offered in Denver — are promising to advance the adoption of e-bikes and are fueling calls for the devices to be seen as essential parts of the evolving transportation ecosystem.

New electric loads — like those brought about by electric vehicles and heat pumps — will likely force upgrades to home electric systems and building codes, experts say. The real challenge will be making changes consistently.

To accept the contention there's still a statewide drought, you need to change the conventional meaning of the word. Of course, we've done that with lots of words in my lifetime. No need to go into that here.

California, always a state of extremes, rarely faces one quite like this. After three years of drought, the state’s snowpack is suddenly the deepest it’s been on record for mid-January. Most spots in the Sierra already have far more snow today than is usually measured on April 1.

Federal assistance will reimburse local and state governments for 75% of the cost to repair infrastructure and other necessities. It will also provide assistance for individual programs based on need and how much insurance residents have.

Communities that consider themselves “safe” from sea level rise might need to think otherwise, said Kris May, a lead author of the report and founder of Pathways Climate Institute, a research-based consulting firm in San Francisco that helps cities adapt to climate change.

The relatively new and potentially dangerous phenomenon of chemicals from wildfire smoke finding their way into water systems is occurring after ‘high severity’ fires, and scientists are just now learning about it.

Though the Russian River began receding Tuesday after peaking just below flood stage in the early morning, another round of sustained rainfall predicted to come through Wednesday and Thursday is expected to drive it upward again.