In mid-November 2021, a great storm begins brewing in the central Pacific Ocean north of Hawai‘i. Especially warm water, heated by the sun, steams off the sea surface and funnels into the sky. This article is from Hakai Magazine, an online … Read more
Recharge Alone Won’t End California’s Groundwater Drought
Groundwater recharge is a useful way to put surface water back underground, but experts say it is a limited solution.
Is The Western Drought Finally Ending? That Depends On Where You Look
After three years of extreme drought, the Western U.S. is finally getting a break. Mountain ranges are covered in deep snow, and water reservoirs in many areas are filling up following a series of atmospheric rivers that brought record rain and snowfall to large parts of the region.
Many people are looking at the snow and water levels and asking: Is the drought finally over?
There is a lot of nuance to the answer.
This Tropical Weather Phenomenon Can Have a Big Influence on California Rain and Snow, But Key Connections Remain a Mystery
In a famous experiment in the early 1960s, the mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz was running computer simulations of weather patterns, trying to see how they changed when he changed variables like wind or temperature at the start. One day, … Read more
The Fastest Population Growth in the West’s Wildland-Urban Interface is in Areas Most Vulnerable to Wildfires
New research shows that some areas of the wildland-urban interface – the land where development ends and wilderness begins – are at much higher risk of burning than others.
Now, California Waits for the Fires
Drought returns to California, with a long fire season ahead.
Photo Essay: Climate Change in the Central Valley
Photographer Jonno Rattman spent a week photographing the Central Valley for Bay Nature’s summer 2019 cover story, “A Time of Reckoning”. He was struck, as he traveled, by the near total absence of people — it was, he says, one … Read more
Fountain a Watering Hole for Drought-Affected Birds
Where does a thirsty bird go when the drought hits hard?
Ask The Naturalist: How Will the Drought Impact Amphibians?
Question: Will newts, frogs and salamanders be out in full force in the Bay Area this spring?
How Are Wildflowers Coping with the Drought?
It’s tough to be a plant when there’s no water! Rainfall is one of the most critical—and most unpredictable—of all the factors that affect wildflower bloom. So how are they coping?