
Study finds more extreme storms ahead for California - chmaynard
http://news.mit.edu/2017/more-extreme-storms-ahead-california-0103
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rb808
Powder magazine says the predicted snowfall for the upcoming week is largest
ever. Extreme is good!

[http://www.powder.com/stories/hydrological-hammer-of-the-
god...](http://www.powder.com/stories/hydrological-hammer-of-the-gods-or-hot-
air/)

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allemagne
>record rainfall had set off mudslides, floods, and power outages across the
state

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matheweis
Although not my current career, I come from an engineering background. This
does not sound all bad.

What I am hearing is that we simply need to build better dams, which can
reduce the impact of the deluge while simultaneously improving the
availability of water in the region. Depending on the amount of water, we may
even be able to use it to irrigate large portions of land _, and allow rivers
and creeks to flow year round.

_ Not all irrigation has to be for farming... perhaps we can water our
national parks as well. Large lakes evaporate tremendous amounts of water too,
further repairing the water cycle as well as being a force of localized
cooling.

~~~
foota
One of the strongest detractors against dams is their large ecological
footprint. Wouldn't larger reservoirs make this worse in some ways?

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crygin
An interesting read on the topic:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARkStorm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARkStorm)

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sjc_native1980s
Interesting. IIRC, not to deny climate change, but for context: there was a
storm c. 1990 with sustained winds over 70 mph in Blossom Valley which nearly
blew in windows through their frames and knocked over many fences.

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jack9
3 inches of rain in an hour isn't all the unprecedented, which is what makes
me wonder about the veracity of the sources. In the 80's it would rain so hard
(and so much) at times that it would knock people down and break windows and
flood streets...mudslide warning still exist along roads in orange county, CA
from that time.

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asciimo
Take that, drought!

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laretluval
How much would they bet?

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cmdrfred
"the state will experience three more extreme precipitation events than the
current average, per year"

A better title would be "California predicted to have 3 extreme precipitation
events per year by 2100" but that won't get as many clicks.

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rm_-rf_slash
Not sure why this post was downvoted but I would agree given that the meaning
is the same for both statements. Is there something I am missing?

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brazzledazzle
Personally I find the frequent comments complaining that the title should be a
dry summary of facts a little dreary. There's a middle ground between
clickbait and a mini-summary and this title seems to be perfectly reasonable.

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pfarnsworth
Many scientists said the same thing about hurricanes after Katrina and they
were completely wrong.[1] And calling the storms from 2014 the "Storm of the
Century" was a joke, another case of media hyperbole.

[1] [http://science.time.com/2013/09/09/a-silent-hurricane-
season...](http://science.time.com/2013/09/09/a-silent-hurricane-season-
ignites-a-debate-over-global-warming/)

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linkregister
Politicians and spokespeople linking the California drought with climate
change has damaged the credibility of these reports. I'm inclined to believe
MIT researchers' climate models but I think this should have been addressed in
this press release.

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knorby
This story is about extreme storms. The example storm mentioned from 2014
occurred in the worst of the drought, caused all kinds of issues, but it
didn't fix anything. Both future droughts and more extreme and frequent
pineapple expresses can co-exist because of climate change. MIT et al.
shouldn't have to explain that in every press release made involving the
climate.

~~~
linkregister
Thanks for this context. I and others in these comments were under the
misapprehension that this meant the drought was gone. See what I mean?

I feel you made the case for explaining it to the audience even stronger.

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jimminy
Here is a link to the drought map for the West Coast.

Comparing December 27, 2016 to December 29, 2015.

Drought is significantly improved over that time period, but still quite
severe in Southern California.

[http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/MapsAndData/WeeklyComparison.a...](http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/MapsAndData/WeeklyComparison.aspx)

