New data reveals shocking turnaround in water supply for millions of people: 'In pretty good shape'
California's dry spell wasn't to be taken lightly. It lasted several years and saw reservoirs reach dangerously low levels.
However, unusual storms, heavy rains, and snow have restored the state's water supply over the last couple of years. Not only is California healthier at the moment, but it's preparing to weather the next drought as well.
"Most of the reservoirs in California are in pretty good shape," said climatologist Dan McEvoy from the Western Regional Climate Center at the Desert Research Institute, per the Chronicle.
Having an emergency water supply in the local reservoirs means that when drought strikes, officials can release water to the people. California's reservoirs hold enough water to supply the state through a one- or even two-year drought, depending on the exact conditions and how full they are to begin with.
Right now, they're very full — they gained 200,000 acre-feet of water, or about 100,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, in the first 2.5 weeks of March.
Not only that, but the snowpack on California's mountain peaks recovered to 93% of the normal as of mid-March. Snow melting in warmer weather is what keeps the reservoirs topped up in the drier parts of the year.
The timing of all this rain and snow couldn't be better, as April is an important time of year for California's water system.
"With several weeks left of March, we will have to wait to see where the state is on April 1, a critical date when the snowpack is usually at its highest," Department of Water Resources agency spokesperson Raquel Borrayo said. "Snow survey data from April helps inform critical water management decisions for the rest of the year."
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New York Times
a day ago
- New York Times
Beach Warnings Issued as Hurricane Erin Nears the East Coast
Hurricane Erin is expected to turn away from the United States but is likely to bring a dangerous threat in the coming days: rip currents along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Bermuda and the Bahamas. The life-threatening risks of rip currents were highlighted last month, when Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who rose to fame as a teenager playing Theo Huxtable on 'The Cosby Show' in the mid-1980s, drowned while swimming at a beach on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. He was swept away by a rip current, channels of water that flow away from the shore and can drag people along. The National Weather Service has warned that Erin could produce 'life-threatening surf and rip currents, and local authorities have issued warnings for swimmers this week in areas affected by Erin. Rip currents, even from distant storms, are the third-highest cause of death related to hurricanes. At least three dozen people in the United States have drowned in the surf so far this summer, most of them caught in rip currents, according to the National Weather Service, which tracks surf-zone deaths across the country. One swimmer died and four others were rescued from the waters off Seaside Heights, N.J., after they became caught in a rip current on Aug. 11, when lifeguards were off-duty, the authorities said. Earlier in July, Chase Childers, a former minor league baseball player, died after rushing into the surf in Pawleys Island, S.C., to save swimmers in a rip current, the police said. Fatalities do not just occur in oceans. In the Great Lakes region, rip currents caused an average of 50 drownings per year from 2010 to 2017, Chris Houser, the dean of science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, said. Can you see a calm strip of water cutting through the waves? Rip currents occur when water flows away from the beach through a narrow channel that has been created by an underwater feature or a sandbar. They are easiest to see from an elevated position like a beach access point, and are harder to spot when a person is closer to the water. From land, a rip current can appear relatively calm on the surface, as a strip of water that extends out from the beach between breaking waves. Its appearance can be deceiving, because the forceful flow of water away from the shore can sweep a swimmer far into the body of water. The current can also appear as a patch of darker water stretching away from the beach, or as a distinct offshore flow. Rip currents are swift and unrelenting. They can move at speeds of up to eight feet per second, which is faster than the pace of an Olympic swimmer. But drownings often happen with far weaker currents, said Gregory Dusek, a senior scientist with the Ocean Service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 'It doesn't have to be moving that fast to cause a problem,' Mr. Dusek said. 'It just needs to be pulling you enough to get you from where you can touch to where you can't.' The currents can occur at any time and in any conditions, but they are most dangerous when waves are two to three feet high, Mr. Dusek added. There is also added risk in late summer, when tropical storm systems and hurricanes can move through a region and prompt strong waves, even on clear, sunny days. 'You can have a storm far away driving pretty large waves, and you can have strong rip currents where you are, even when the weather seems fine,' Mr. Dusek said. Check the surf forecast at your beach. NOAA maintains beach weather forecasts for several popular destinations, which contain information about rip currents and waves, at Surf zone forecasts also assess the low, moderate or high risks of rip currents associated with your destination beach. Some lists of safety tips from government agencies also state the obvious for people dipping into the surf: Make sure you know how to swim. Read signs and avoid swimming near piers. Try to swim at a beach that is under the watch of lifeguards, and ask them about the conditions before you enter the water. Comply with their orders, and read and follow instructions from official posted signs. Do not swim alone or within 100 feet of piers and jetties, because rip currents flourish alongside them, NOAA recommends. Families with children should swim near a lifeguard if there is one. It also helps if children bring something that floats into the water with them, such as a boogie board, a surfboard or a lifejacket, all of which can help weaker swimmers navigate a rip current. Hopefully, you will never need the advice in the next section. Don't fight the rip current. Many people panic when they get pulled into a rip current, which leads them to waste energy and make irrational decisions, Mr. Dusek said. If you find yourself carried off by a rip current, try to relax and evaluate your surroundings. Remember that a rip current will not pull you under, he said. And don't try to swim against it. Not every rip current is the same, and you may use different strategies depending on the water's movement and your swimming abilities, Mr. Dusek said. It is possible that the current itself will circulate back to shore. If so, float. The rip current is generally narrow, so try to escape it through its side, rather than head-on. Strong swimmers should move in a direction that follows along the shoreline, or swim toward breaking waves and then at an angle toward the beach, he said. 'If you don't think you can do that, or you feel like you're swimming anywhere in particular, you want to just float and wave your hands and call for help,' Mr. Dusek said. It's important to stay above the water and avoid exhausting yourself to give time for a lifeguard to reach you or for someone on the shore to call 911. To do so, you can also embrace the 'flip, float, follow' strategy, which involves flipping on your back to float above water and following the current until it takes you past breaking waves or back to shore. How to help someone stuck in a current. Rip current drownings often occur when bystanders wade into dangerous conditions to help another person. To assist someone safely, you can help direct them to swim parallel to the shore or flip on their back to float. If you are near someone stuck in a rip current, alert a lifeguard. If there is no lifeguard on duty, call 911. Even if the person escapes the rip current, they may still need lifesaving support, Mr. Dusek said. For swimmers who are pulled by the current closer to the shore, give them something that floats to hold onto, such as a boogie board or a cooler. If you feel like the only option is to enter the water — and you're a strong swimmer — it's important to still bring a flotation device, Mr. Dusek said. Jenny Gross contributed reporting.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Hurricane Erin may bring coastal danger from Florida to New England
Hurricane Erin strengthened into a monstrous Category 5 storm in the Atlantic Ocean on Aug. 16, and is expected to bring widespread danger along the East Coast, even if it isn't forecast to make landfall. Rough ocean conditions are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip currents in the coming days, according to the National Hurricane Center. The rip currents were causing moderate risk on Aug. 16 in northeastern Florida, but could increase along the East Coast of the United States early next week, said the National Weather Service office in Jacksonville, Florida. AccuWeather senior meteorologist Dan Pydynowski told USA TODAY dangerous surf conditions could reach as far as New England beaches, even as the hurricane is expected to avoid making landfall. Graphics: How rip currents endanger swimmers Safety: Rip currents kill dozens every year. What to do if you get caught in one The late-summer weather might seem ideal for a beach trip, but these conditions are when rip current fatalities tend to occur, said National Hurricane Center Director Mike Brennan. Rip currents might not be visible from shore, and they can appear suddenly. Beachgoers should swim near lifeguards and pay attention to warnings. Rip currents are fast-moving channels of water that flow away from shore. In doing so, the currents drag swimmers out into open waters. People can then become exhausted and drown. The narrow, strong currents flow quickly, faster at times than an Olympic swimmer, and perpendicular to the coastline. Rip currents cause the majority of deaths among beach swimmers each year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Of 52 identified surf zone deaths in 2025 to date, nearly half were caused by rip currents. Since 2010, over 800 people have died in rip current drownings. What to do if you get caught in a rip current If you get caught in a rip current, the best thing to do is remain calm. Currents won't pull you underwater, but away from shore. So people shouldn't swim against the current, which puts them at risk of tiring out. Instead, you should swim parallel to shore and then swim back at an angle when you're free of the rip current. What if someone else is caught in a rip current? Plenty of people drown trying to save others caught in a rip current. If someone is struggling, NOAA's Rip Current Survival Guide recommends you try to get help from a lifeguard. You can also throw a floatable device to the person who needs it while you get a lifeguard. But amid a nationwide shortage of lifeguards, if there isn't a lifeguard present, call 911. Try to direct the person to swim parallel to shore to get out of the rip current. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hurricane Erin may bring dangerous surf from Florida to New England
Scientific American
2 days ago
- Scientific American
Why Hurricanes like Erin Trigger Rip Currents Hundreds of Miles Away
On August 19 Hurricane Erin is crawling past the Bahamas as a strong Category 2 storm and is due to head toward the Carolinas and then veer northeast over the open Atlantic Ocean. Although the storm's eye may never come within 300 miles of the mainland U.S., most of the East Coast—from Miami to Maine—is under a moderate or high risk of rip currents. In the U.S. rip currents cause about 100 fatal drownings each year and are responsible for four out of five beach rescues, according to a 2019 study. Here's the science behind how rip currents work, why hurricanes can cause them at such great distances from land and what beachgoers need to know about the threat. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Rip Currents Explained Rip currents are a common phenomenon even without a hurricane roiling the distant ocean, says Melissa Moulton, a coastal physical oceanographer at the University of Washington. 'Rip currents are strong seaward currents that are caused by breaking waves,' she says. 'They can be as narrow as an alleyway or as wide as a multilane highway; they can last for just a few minutes or sometimes a number of hours.' At their fastest, they can beat an Olympic swimmer. These currents are an inevitable by-product of ocean physics on a complex shoreline, says Chris Houser, a coastal geomorphologist at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Waves 'are constantly moving water toward that shoreline,' Houser says. That might sound obvious, but there's a corollary people may not think about too carefully, he adds: all that water has 'got to go somewhere.' That 'where' is back out to sea, and rip currents are one of the key routes by which water gets there. A rip current develops from variations in how waves break along a coastline, causing water from crashing waves to stay at the surface and flow sideways, then out to sea. (If the water instead travels down and straight back out, it forms an undertow, although the two terms are sometimes conflated.) Rip currents are more likely to develop when a coastline is more complex, in terms of either the visible shore—a feature such as a jetty or a rocky point can trigger rip currents—or the underwater topography of sandbars that raise the ocean floor. 'Over a shallow sandbar, you're getting larger breaking waves compared to, say, over a channel or a deeper spot,' says Greg Dusek, a coastal physical oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That creates variation in breaking waves and funnels outgoing water toward deeper areas that can form rip currents. The result is a misleading picture at the beach. 'You're looking along the shoreline, and you see areas of waves that are breaking and areas that are not breaking,' Houser says. 'You might actually think that the calm water is safest. It's probably a rip current.' (Although that doesn't mean the breaking waves are safe either.) Why Distant Hurricanes Trigger Rip Currents The picture becomes even more confusing when a hurricane passes far from shore, as Hurricane Erin is doing this week. With the stormy winds hundreds of miles away, conditions onshore might be gorgeous—but a hurricane can still make its presence known. Just as an earthquake can trigger a tsunami that crosses an entire ocean, even a distant hurricane can whip up beach surf. 'You might be standing on the beach, and it's a sunny day, no strong winds,' Moulton says. 'Because waves transport energy over very long distances very efficiently, we're not seeing the winds or anything from the hurricane, but we will see the wave energy.' The sizes of waves produced by a hurricane are determined by the sustained windspeeds inside the storm, the amount of ocean that the storm covers and the speed at which it travels. In general, faster winds, a larger area and slower movement tend to lead to taller waves that travel farther. When those waves hit a shoreline, they're more likely to trigger rip currents. 'The bigger the waves, the stronger the rip—if you have the physical conditions present for rips to be there,' Houser says. And the risk of rip currents can linger long after a storm has passed, Dusek warns. That's in part because the storm may have reshaped the visible or underwater topography of a beach. And when a distant storm is creating waves that are six or 10 feet tall, people typically know to stay out of the ocean. But when waves become a little less dramatic and local conditions are beautiful, it's more difficult to see the dangers of rip currents. Dusek expects that rip current risks along the East Coast could remain high through the rest of the week and perhaps into the weekend. That's particularly dangerous toward the end of summer, when people flock to the beach. 'In the wintertime, we have lots of winter storms up and down the East Coast, but rip currents aren't typically a concern because no one's swimming,' he says. How to Stay Safe from Rip Currents Moulton, Houser and Dusek all agree that staying safe from rip currents means following two guidelines: only swim at beaches where a lifeguard is present and obey any warnings from lifeguards or local officials about staying out of the water. 'If they have a red flag flying, it's not because they're being overly cautious,' Houser says. 'They are seeing something that you can't.' If you do happen to get caught in a rip current, Houser says, advice on what to do has changed in recent years. Officials used to recommend people try to swim parallel to shore to 'break the grip of the rip.' But in the heat of the moment, it's difficult to know which way is which, he says. So officials have pivoted to 'flip, float, follow.' 'Flip means don't put your feet down; flip so that your head is up and you are floating on your back,' Houser says. 'Then you start to follow the rip current. Allow it to take you slightly.' He's done this and says that, even with a floatation device, it's terrifying. But instead of wasting your strength against a fierce current, the strategy allows you to get your bearings and signal to a lifeguard while reducing the risk of drowning.
