Hashtag Rain

UPDATE: LOS ANGELES RAIN

Like OMG it's raining. Source: Buzzfeed

The skies have opened up! It has rained in L.A. I just wanted to give a quick update on the rain that has been happening in California; we'll continue with Southwest Recreation next post.

It has been raining a lot this week by Los Angeles standards. The LA Times (3/12/14) summarized that 1.21 inches fell in downtown L.A. with upwards of 3.5 inches in the mountains over two days. That breaks the 1960s rainfall records! This rainfall is great but it doesn't mean the drought is over. One rainstorm does not solve a 3 year drought in a week. Also these storms bring with them their own problems.

I'm not saying we shouldn't welcome or celebrate the rain; it's a much needed relief for the drying Southwest BUT I'm saying we shouldn't praise this storm as a save-all.

• The drought. One storm can't solve it all. If this storm is an indicator of a wetter El Nino year (which we're still not sure of yet (LA Times 2/12/14)) then California might be able to combat the longstanding drought. However, this storm alone added 5 billion gallons to Lake Oroville, a major water reservoir, but keep in mind that's only 1% of its capacity. As the LA Times (2/12/14) explains "state water experts said it would take 150% of the average rainfall of California to recover from the current drought." This rainfall is great for L.A., but it needs more!
• Mudslides. As the hills have dried and been prone to forest fires, the hills then become prone to mudslides (see this LA Times (1/12/14) series of gifs for an overview). In this storm, communities around the hills have had to be evacuated for fears of mudslides (LA Times 2/12/14). Flash storms can threaten communities in Southern California so while bringing water, they also bring problems.
• Runoff. Los Angeles is a big urban area and with that comes a lot of runoff during storms. This runoff means the city loses water to the ocean and flushes a lot of pollution out to sea (NBC Los Angeles 3/12/14). While there are water runoff treatment and recycling plants already in place, they can't handle the influx from flash storms and the city loses billions of gallons of water to the sea. Los Angeles needs to develop further systems to recycle the storm runoff.

Now when you see more about the recent Los Angeles rain storms just remember Los Angeles needs this rain! But the rain doesn't come problem free and the city, state and entire region will need a whole lot more of it to recover from the current drought.

#SoCalProblems Source: Tumblr