Study: California Drought Worst in 1200 Years

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http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/12/05/Study-California-Drought-Worst-in-1200-Years

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http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver/Breitbart/Breitbart-California/2014/California/Drought/Drought%20Dead-Carp-Dry-Riverbed-AP.jpg

by Joel B. Pollak (http://www.breitbart.com/Columnists/Joel-B-Pollak) 5 Dec 2014, 6:19 AM PDT 846 (http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/12/05/Study-California-Drought-Worst-in-1200-Years#disqus_thread) post a comment (http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/12/05/Study-California-Drought-Worst-in-1200-Years#comments)

This week's statewide rains have made little impact in relieving California's extreme drought. In fact, according to a new scientific study, this drought is the worst that California has experienced in 1200 years. Researchers studying tree rings concluded that "the current event is the most severe drought in the last 1200 years, with single year (2014) and accumulated moisture deficits worse than any previous continuous span of dry years." The study, published (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL062433/abstract) as a research letter in the journal of the American Geophysical Union, was written by Daniel Griffin of the University of Minnesota and Kevin J Anchukaitis of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. By measuring tree rings from nearly 300 blue oaks, and comparing those measurements with data from older trees such as giant sequoias, scientists were able to generate estimates of rainfall for centuries.
As the San Jose Mercury News reported (http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_27070897/california-drought-worst-1-200-years-new-study?source=rss): "The researchers took core samples, which don't harm the living trees, of oaks as old as 500 years and oak logs dating back more than 700 years, the University of Minnesota's Griffin said. And they sanded down the wood with extremely fine-grain sandpaper, magnifying the rings 40 times under a microscope and measuring them to within one one-thousandth of a millimeter." The scientists then used similar data in the North American Drought Atlas to calculate temperature and rainfall conditions.
"Although there are 37 times over the past 1,200 years when there were three-year dry periods in California, no period had as little rainfall and as hot of temperatures as 2012-14, the scientists concluded," the Mercury News reported.
Meanwhile, Californians still hope that this week's storms herald the beginning of a recovery.
Senior Editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak edits Breitbart California and is the author of the new ebook, Wacko Birds: The Fall (and Rise) of the Tea Party (http://www.amazon.com/Wacko-Birds-Fall-Rise-Party-ebook/dp/B00NKTCKHE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410797309&sr=8-1&keywords=wacko+birds), available for Amazon Kindle.
Follow Joel on Twitter: @joelpollak (http://twitter.com/joelpollak)

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It has been raining nonstop since Monday.... whoo hooo should help the drought quite a bit , and another storm coming in Thursday 3 inches so far/ plus the 1 1/4 we got in Oct . I bet the LA area and San Francisco bay has got alot more then that though.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pyC7WnvLT4

[crimethink]

It has been raining nonstop since Monday.... whoo hooo should help the drought quite a bit , and another storm coming in Thursday 3 inches so far/ plus the 1 1/4 we got in Oct . I bet the LA area and San Francisco bay has got alot more then that though.

Up here on the North Coast, we welcome every drop!

However, it's going to take years of "normal" rain to refill the underground aquifers. I mentioned to my wife last night, while driving by a creek. It's not flooding. It (mildly) floods every time we get rain like this. It's soaking in, like into a bone-dry sponge.

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In my part of Southern California, we get more rain annually than Portland, Oregon. Problem is it comes down in ten inch increments.