California Snowpack

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On California’s dismal snowpack, from the Chron:

The water content of the Sierra Nevada snowpack is at its lowest level in nearly 20 years — less than 40 percent of usual for this time of year, state water officials say.

The size of the snowpack — the source for most of the state’s drinking water — has already prompted calls for immediate conservation. And orders to curtail use of water could become mandatory this summer or next year if 2008 is also dry.

Usually the biggest accumulation of snow occurs around April 1. But this year the snowpack didn’t grow after the first week in March.

Elissa Lynn, senior meteorologist at the California Department of Water Resources, called the 2007 snowfall “pretty dismal.”

(Hat tip Belshaw.)

Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere

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New Mexico and Colorado are about to enter Rio Grande Compact Article VII restrictions. That means Elephant Butte, the big reservoir down south, is too low, and we’re prohibited from upstream storage. The meat:

In flirting with Rio Grande Compact restrictions, New Mexico finds itself in what has become a familiar situation, with the state’s water supplies barely able to cover agricultural and municipal needs.


That is very different from the period from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. A wetter climate, combined with a smaller population and lower demands, meant Elephant Butte had twice as much water as needed to prevent the compact’s drought restrictions.

Johnston Alive

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Members of the European Parliament have been told Alan Johnston is alive:

Members of the European Parliament have been told by Palestinian leaders that the kidnapped BBC correspondent, Alan Johnston, is alive.

A 12-member delegation of MEPs were given the assurances in a meeting with Palestinian Deputy PM Azzam al-Ahmad in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Mr Azzam also told them the Palestinian security services knew what they had to do to secure the reporter’s release.

Mr Johnston was seized at gunpoint in Gaza City on 12 March.

I Guess It Depends on Where You Are

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Farm Group Says Rain Ends SA Drought:

The South Australian Farmers Federation senior vice-president says recent rains mean the drought is as good as over and he expects farmers to start seeding as soon as the ground is dry enough.

April Rains Fail to End NSW Drought:

Despite a wet April in some parts of NSW, drought continues to grip most of the state, this month’s rainfall figures show.

A reminder that Australia’s a big place, I guess, and that definitions of drought and not-drought vary.

Water in the Desert

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You’re looking at one of the largest tributaries in the Middle Rio Grande – the discharge from Albuquerque’s sewage treatment plant. I don’t know the exact numbers, but we’re putting something in the neighborhood of 60,000 acre feet of water per year into the river. Currently, this is largely Pleistocene groundwater being mined from the city’s aquifer – used once, then dumped in the river to augment its flow.

Big Toe – Artist

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Big Toe Artist

Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck.

In addition to his scientific background, Big Toe spent two semesters studying art at the Sorbonne, during which time he spent a good deal of time at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, where several of Van Gogh’s self-portraits clearly influenced his current work. Today was his day off, but I dropped by Inkstain World Headquarters this afternoon to pick up some papers and found him at work on this. Something of a polymath, I guess.

Big Toe Reads Thermometers

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Big Toe Reads Thermometers

Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck.

Staff climatologist Big Toe reading the thermometers today in the Inkstain World Headquarters weather station. His first assignment is to analyze data from the IWH thermometers as relates to the official National Weather Service readings. We are attempting to resolve uncertainties about the “urban heat island effect.”

Today’s IWH high was 81. At the Weather Service, the high was 73. Big Toe has concluded, based on this data point, that the urban heat island effect is real.

Building a Fence at the Loading Dock

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It’s bad enough when the science establishment charges for access to the loading dock, but Shelley Batts’ experience is even worse. Intrigued by a paper in The Science of Food, she blogged it, including a graph and data table from the paper. For which sin she was threatened with legal action for violation of copyright. The whole notion of “fair use” under U.S. copyright law is so murky that you should distrust anyone who claims they can actually tell you what it is. But, fair use or not, this is just dumb. (Hat tip Avelino. Loading dock jargon discussed previously here.)

Update: Happy resolution.