Mystery "Warm Blob" In the Pacific Ocean Could Be Causing California's Drought

Mr D from 63 writes A mysterious "warm blob" in the Pacific Ocean could be the reason why US West coast states like California are experiencing their worst ever drought, a new study says. From the article: "Nick Bond, a climate scientist at the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean at the University of Washington, began watching the blob a year and a half ago. 'In the fall of 2013 and early 2014, we started to notice a big, almost circular mass of water that just didn't cool off as much as it usually did, so by spring of 2014 it was warmer than we had ever seen it for that time of year,' Bond said in a news release about the studies appearing in Geophysical Research Letters."

Comments

You have to be careful

[93 Escort Wagon]

When your data size is 1, drawing conclusions is problematic.

Also, the blob itself went away last fall. There is a significant amount of warmer than average water that has appeared along much of the West coast this winter, but it's not in the same location as the blob.

Re:You have to be careful

[Z00L00K]

We know some things at least so far. California have over-used the water for a long time now, the ground water table is a lot lower than it was a century ago. The dam fill levels have varied up and down more and people have a tendency to look at them when it comes to how much water that can be consumed.

There have been periods of drought before through history - at which time major population movements were necessary. In some cases enough to end empires.

Re:You have to be careful

[Bob the Super Hamste]

I really don't have any sympathy for CA's water problems. When looking at farming use of water(page 4) the largest crop consumer of water isn't one people eat but is one used to feed other animals in that state that is basically a fucking desert. Sadly it would appear that in addition to low value alfalfa forages of other grasses and grains are other major crop water users. When I hear about the drought in CA I am reminded of the late Sam Kinison:

YOU LIVE IN A DESERT!! UNDERSTAND THAT? YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT!! NOTHING GROWS HERE! NOTHING'S GONNA GROW HERE! Come here, you see this? This is sand. You know what it's gonna be 100 years from now? IT'S GONNA BE SAND!! YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT!

If you want to fix CA then remove all of the beef and dairly subsidies that make it economical to raise cattle in a desert. Same thing for the ranchers up in the high desert of Oregon and Washington who bitch about water rights. Boo hoo beef is going to cost more, good then maybe we won't have so much cheap shitty beef around.

Re:No Bad management is causing the drought

[ShanghaiBill]

Also, the lack of reprocessing and reusing of waste water. We could achieve a lot by filtering and reusing the waste water aka "toilet to tap."

This is exactly the wrong approach. The last thing California needs is more top-down "solutions". Just price the water properly, and if recycling makes economic sense, it will happen. Most likely it will NOT happen, because it is a dumb idea. You have to deal, not only with the cost of cleaning the sewage, but also the energy cost of pumping it back uphill to where it can be reused. A far simpler solution is to end the subsidies for growing rice in the desert.

Re:No Bad management is causing the drought

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure. And then say goodbye to the agricultural industry in California as they try to compete with everywhere else on the planet that doesn't "price water properly". Seriously, you can't see that?

Say 'goodbye' to 2% of the state's economy that is causing serious hardship to the other 98% and which is the largest draw to increasing illegal immigration?

To the CA ag industry I say "don't let the door hit you in the ass!"

Re:"worst ever"

[Rockoon]

Exhibit A: A freshly minted climate denier talking point.

Exhibit A++: The smug bullshit of people that immediately claim "denier" when faced with an argument that they dont want to be true, and that they cant even do such a trivial web search to make sure that they arent so obviously putting their foot in it (like one of the people that replied to him did) isnt surprising at all. They have always been this way. This is what they do.

Hint: The grandparent is not only right, he is very right. The parent doesnt want him to be right, so calls him names.

Re:"worst ever"

[drinkypoo]

But outside of COMPUTER MODELS that are tweaked TO GIVE THE RESULTS THEY WANT 'climate scientists' have nothing to show for years of 'science'.

This is how models work. You tweak the model until it fits both what your predictions suggest, and also makes sense. If you can't make it fit enough situations then maybe you learn a new way to change the model. Meanwhile, the model which makes the most successful predictions gets reused. None of the models ever describe reality perfectly, but we use the model which best approximates reality to get work done.