Southern California has been suffering from one of the toughest droughts in its history since January of this year. But some good news is coming – rain and snow forecast headed towards Southern California. Weather stations say that mountain snow and thunderstorms are forecast for the region. Rain occurred last Wednesday and heavier rain is expected to cross the region on Friday, with more rain covering the whole state by Saturday. On the heels of the rains will be several feet of mountain snow that is forecast to cover the Sierra by Saturday. With the warmer weather, the run off from the snow will be highly beneficial in filling the state’s water reservoirs.
Time to rejoice
Southern California is badly in need of some relief from the drought, so the rains forecast for Friday and Saturday, as well as the mountain snow are very welcome. However, authorities also want residents to be careful. While the rain and snow will bring much needed relief from the drought, these also come with some risks and can pose some dangers on people living in Southern California. The storms are expected to pour about six to eight inches of rain in the mountains during the two days. About four to six inches of rain on the other hand are expected to fall in the lower parts of the state, including the area surrounding the San Gabriel Valley.
Dangers from the rain include mudslides and some flash floods, as there are several areas that suffered from wildfires. The weather station is giving residents in the area ample warning so they can have a plan in place in case they need to evacuate. It is also forecast that hail and damaging winds can occur and they are not ruling the occurrence of a water spot or even a brief tornado. It is expected that these two storms will bring the biggest rainfall to Southern California in three years.
Drinking water
Meanwhile, drinking water is still a problem in California, which has been suffering from longer and longer droughts in recent years. The state is now thinking of alternative ways to have drinking water.
In Carlsbad, California, construction is underway for the Western Hemisphere’s largest plant for seawater desalination. The $1 billion plant is expected to be finished by the early part of 2016 and is projected to provide close to 50 million gallons of fresh drinking water each day, enough to supply the drinking water needs of the region’s 112,000 households. The plant will be doing reverse osmosis to purify the water that the plant will draw up from the Pacific Ocean. San Diego is already importing around 70% of its water requirements and has agreed to buy from the Carlsbad plant when it becomes fully operational, according to Bob Yamada, the San Diego County Water Authority’s water resources manager.
Photo credit: Taken by Peter Souza under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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