California’s current deluge highlights enormous vulnerability.

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A constant parade of atmospheric rivers

Storms wreak havoc, bringing drought relief to the arid west.

It’s hard to imagine anyone in California wanting a respite from the rain after years of drought and heat waves with massive fires, water restrictions, and diminished hydroelectric power. has been the prevailing mood across the Golden State in recent times, grayer than gold for the last month or so, saturated by what the National Weather Service called a brutal and “constant parade of atmospheric rivers.” has become

monster storm, respectively carry several Mississippi rivers The tropical humidity blamed the states in succession as quickly as they were blown out of celestial machine guns. They brought much-needed relief to drought-stricken areas. But they also wreak havoc on the population, killing at least 20 people and reminding us that much of our infrastructure is very unprepared. Weather that intensifies climate change.

9.2
On December 30th, rainfall at the Echo Peak weather station south of Lake Tahoe, California, broke the 24-hour record of 5.2 inches.

.32
Percentage of California hit by severe drought on January 10, 2023.

27
Rate of severe drought in the previous week.

First, the good news: over 50 dozen monthly precipitation record It tied and broke on the west side from northern Montana to southern Arizona in December and early January. Eight of them were all-time records. In 24 hours at the Sierraville Ranger Station near the Nevada-California border, he received a whopping 8.2 inches of moisture. Most of it was in the form of heavy wet snow that destroyed utility lines and was difficult to shovel.

The Great Flood Procession Didn’t Stop in the Sierra Nevada: Utah’s Mountains buried Skiers at Wolf Creek Ski Area in southwestern Colorado are covered in about twice as much snow as normal for this time of year. waist-high powderAlthough 86% of the West is still in drought conditions, the majority of classifications are “severity” and “Exceptional” levels that hit the area a year ago. The upper Colorado River and the river basin that empties into Lake Powell More than normal snowfall recordedAssuming current trends continue, that is, this is by no means a given. Last winter started strong in the Southwest in terms of snowfall, only to fade later.

But the storm also brought devastating grief, with nearly a dozen people dead, thousands displaced and dozens displaced and displaced from their homes. 5 year old Kyle Doan sweep away Two-year-old Aeon Totchi was killed by flood waters after the car he was in flooded in San Luis Obispo County. died Rebecca Lord, a homeless woman, said while in Sacramento when gales knocked over a giant sequoia in her family’s trailer home in Sonoma County. killed when a tree fell on her tent; Meanwhile, actor Jeremy Renner survived blunt force trauma to his chest and other serious injuries after his 14,000-pound snowplow was used to dig out a car buried near his home in Lake Tahoe. I am recovering. ran over him.

304
Percent median snow cover from 1991 to 2020 on January 15 at Heavenly Valley SNOTEL station. Highest level of the day since records began in 1979.

23.8
inch of water contained in a snowpack Mill-D North SNOTEL Station East of Salt Lake City, record high on January 15th. On this day in 2021, the observatory recorded just 6.5 inches of humidity.

24 trillion
gallon of water landed in california Late December to early January.

Inundated homes, floods that blocked roads, and oversaturated wildfire trails that could not bear their own weight caused debris flows, landslides, and even fallen trees.Angelenos walked Through inches of muddy water at Union Station onto trains and subways.Ah sinkhole In the LA suburb of Chatworth, it opened up below the street and devoured two cars and their occupants. All managed to escape with only minor injuries.

But as unrelenting and sometimes record-breaking as these storms have been, they not unheard ofCalifornia’s history has been plagued by enormous storms and associated floods, including the “Great Flood” of 1862. The 1909 storm brought about 6 feet of rain to Northern California in a month. Such as the ultra-destructive 1938 Los Angeles Flood. The swollen San Lorenzo River near Santa Cruz Star of many YouTube videos in the last few weeks, reached a similar level As recently as 2017, but also as far back as 1955.

It should scare us. So this will definitely stick as one of his 2023s. multi-billion dollar disaster. (Last year, the West made the list for very different reasons: drought and wildfires.) But imagine the destruction that one of last year’s giant storms would bring from a climate-enhanced version. It’s no exaggeration to say that California’s cities, roads, dams, and levees aren’t prepared for the 1-in-1,000-year storms known to weathering geeks. arc storm.

Know what else you’re not ready for? The Western Power Grid — the megamachines that keep modern society running.

In late December and early January, snow, wind, and rain battered power company transmission lines and transformers, causing power poles on the West Coast to topple and power outages.At the same time, he has half a million people was in the darkAlso at Pacific Gas and Electric An army of 5,000 line workers, brought in from across the region to deal with storms, power could not always be restored with brief pauses during deluges, causing some residents to shiver in the dark for over a week, turning off their devices. It could not recharge or communicate with the outside world. Uncooked food that spoils in an unused refrigerator.

400,000
Number of households in California without power at one time in early January due to storm damage to grid infrastructure.

8,000
Number of California households without power during peak heatwave in September 2022.

402
Number of landslides in the state Recorded According to the California Geological Survey, Dec. 30 to Jan. 15.

Perhaps the strangest thing about this is that few people are concerned about the painfully obvious vulnerability of power grids to extreme weather. This is in contrast to the hand-biting and teeth-grinding that was prevalent just months ago, when a heat wave only threatened rolling blackouts. Conservative lawmakers and usually more rational people blamed the “crisis” on the state’s relatively rapid transition from fossil fuels to unreliable renewable energy sources.

In the end, only a few thousand people lost power in the September heat wave. This was not only due to strain on the power grid, but also due to transmission errors. However, the close call, and potential political repercussions, have prompted California legislators to commit $1.4 billion to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant operating beyond its 2025 retirement date and to keep the natural gas power plant operational. It was so frightening that I ordered it to be activated in the next period. grid crisis. Never mind that burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases, warming the climate, exacerbating heatwaves and exposing already raging atmospheric rivers to climate steroids. .

Fast forward just a few months. Hundreds of thousands of people are now shivering in the dark for hours and days. The same people who were apocalyptic about the dangers of solar and wind power have mostly gone silent, maybe I’m missing something, but I’ve only seen one story of his. not- thank you, LA Times — Acknowledge the grid’s lack of resilience during these events and propose a solution. For example, burying power lines, building more microgrids, or paying for solar and batteries in homes to help people survive power outages caused by storms.

In fact, judging by the number of headlines devoted to these things, the greatest threat to the power grid is terrorists, or something like that.And there’s reason to worry: on Christmas Day, two men Attack 4 different substations In Washington State, it looks like they’re trying to overthrow the power so they can rob local businesses. About 30,000 households lost power due to the incident. Then, in early January, a Colorado man set a car on fire at his 100 MW solar array near Las Vegas. This solar array powers his MGM Casino on the Strip. But even though the plant went offline, the slot machines and neon lights kept going.When law enforcement caught up with him, the suspect said he did it Send a message in support of clean energy, added that he thinks Alley is related to Tesla. If that doesn’t make sense to you, you’re not alone.

I don’t know what the lesson is, but if a well-timed gunshot can turn off the lights of 30,000 people, imagine what a well-timed 24 trillion gallon deluge can do. Now California’s reservoirs are filling up again, replenishing the state’s hydroelectric capacity. This should allow the region to weather this summer’s inevitable heat wave without consuming more natural gas, which contributes to climate warming. But this also portends another potential problem. If the reservoir fills up, the integrity of the dam can be threatened.Remember, it was just 6 years ago Auroville Dam Spillway Failed, 180,000 people were forced to evacuate. Wow.

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Jonathan Thompson said, high country news. He is the author of The Wormwood Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Forefront of America’s Public Lands.

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