An atmospheric phenomenon lingered along the West Coast over a recent four-year stretch, sending winter storms north and preventing precious rain and snow from reaching California. Dubbed the “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge,” the high-pressure system made the Golden State bone-dry and moved Gov. Jerry Brown to make an unprecedented order requiring nearly 40 million Californians to slash water use in their homes.
Read moreIt’s a good bet the year after a rainy season someone is going to get bit by a rattlesnake in California, according to a study of 20 years of snakebite data released Thursday.
Read moreThe German government said Wednesday it will compensate thousands of farmers whose harvests have suffered as a result of this year’s extreme drought, which many experts have linked to climate change.
Read moreAs increasingly hot and severe wildfires scorch the West, lichen communities found in conifer forests aren’t returning even years after flames have been extinguished, new research shows.
Read moreHarsh drought conditions in parts of the American West are pushing wild horses to the brink and spurring extreme measures to protect them.
Read moreWith 98 percent of New Mexico suffering from drought this summer, a fight over water rights is gearing up in the state capital, where the commissioner of public lands sued the state engineer for allowing millions of gallons of groundwater to be used for fracking.
Read moreThree years after issuing California’s first mandatory water restrictions during a historic drought, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday inked legislation creating permanent water-use goals for households and suppliers.
Read moreJust two months after lawmakers accused it of sitting on voter-approved funds, California regulators have switched their tune and are ready to spend billions on water infrastructure projects.
Read moreThe late-season surge of storms in California bolstered the snowpack that provides much of the state’s water supply, but not enough to even be called average.
Read moreMarch hasn’t brought a miracle to California, but it has improved the state’s water picture enough to at least delay any drought declarations.
Read moreSouth Africa has declared that the drought afflicting Cape Town and other parts of the country is a national disaster.
Read moreCalifornia’s water regulator punted a raft of regulations to fine water hogs up to $500, even as the Golden State plunges back into drought.
Read moreA federal judge ordered federal regulators to reevaluate the environmental impacts of a popular California water program that allows farmers to sell water to parched southern cities and water districts during droughts.
Read moreOverall water use is climbing in Southern California as that part of the state plunges back into drought, driving state and regional water managers as they consider permanently reinstating some watering bans and conservation programs.
Read moreOne of the most important reservoirs in the southwestern U.S. will likely collect less than half its normal amount of spring runoff this year because of a warm, dry winter across much of the region, forecasters said Wednesday.
Read moreOne year after record rainfall quenched California’s persistent thirst and led its lawmakers to declare a devastating five-year drought over, water woes may have already returned to the Golden State.
Read moreA federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Thursday accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of failing to review temporary changes California made to its water-quality standards during the drought that devastated fish populations, a move environmentalists say could again endanger them in a future drought.
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Drought conditions across much of Maine may have contributed to the large numbers of trees that toppled during a storm that walloped the Northeast this week, officials said.
Read moreWith Northern California’s brutal October wildfires nearly contained after burning 245,000 acres, destroying over 8,400 buildings and claiming 42 lives, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California called on her Capitol Hill colleagues on Tuesday to hike funding for wildfire suppression and disaster relief.
Read morePortugal’s Pego do Altar reservoir looks like disused quarry now, its bare, exposed slopes rising up steeply on each side and shimmering in the sun as it holds barely 11 percent of the water it was designed for.
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