It's often dry in California's Central Valley, a massive region with agriculture that provides a large portion of food for the USA, but we're apparently in the middle of something special. Usually around this time of year we'd be donning a light water-proof jacket or carrying an umbrella (you never need to wrap up against the cold). Instead, Governor Jerry Brown just declared a drought emergency.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-declares-drought-emergency-in-california-20140117,0,3244744.story#axzz2qt9Q6PM7
The unwatered lawns around town are brown, instead of the usual January green. Daffodils are emerging in my garden, and the air has it's usual summer haze; just the wrong time of year. With reports of snowpack at ~20% of normal (snowpack usually provides ~2/3rds of the State's water) and indications that much farmland will be left fallow, it sounds like the start of a tough year.
If you've watched Ken Burn's "The Dust Bowl" http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/ recently, as I did the last two nights, or read Timothy Egan's "The Worst Hard Time" (New York Times Review), this isn't anything like that yet, but you'll understand why there might be a tangible air of pessimism.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-declares-drought-emergency-in-california-20140117,0,3244744.story#axzz2qt9Q6PM7
The unwatered lawns around town are brown, instead of the usual January green. Daffodils are emerging in my garden, and the air has it's usual summer haze; just the wrong time of year. With reports of snowpack at ~20% of normal (snowpack usually provides ~2/3rds of the State's water) and indications that much farmland will be left fallow, it sounds like the start of a tough year.
If you've watched Ken Burn's "The Dust Bowl" http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/ recently, as I did the last two nights, or read Timothy Egan's "The Worst Hard Time" (New York Times Review), this isn't anything like that yet, but you'll understand why there might be a tangible air of pessimism.
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