California Flooding, but so much of the State in drought

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#USA, March 13, 2023 – California residents are facing their tenth atmospheric river in three months and already a river has burst its banks sending 8, 000 scrambling out of their homes to safety. But as the sunny West Coast state floods and floods, 84 percent of it is classified as being under drought conditions.

Extended periods of drought damage microbes in the soil that break down organic matter,  layers of organic matter can then become like a waxy film on top of soil, this can in turn make the solid hydrophobic or water repellent.

The Department of Agriculture and Food in Australia (which deals with drought regularly) says water repellency results in poor water infiltration, variable soil wetting, increased erosion risk and reduced and delayed crop, pasture and weed establishment.

This means among other consequences, instead of seeping into parched earth quickly, the water takes much longer to penetrate,  and heavy rain can induce severe flooding. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says much like a river is water moving over land, an atmospheric river is a stream of water vapor moving in the sky. When that unleashes it can cause flooding. Even more so when the area has been in a months-long drought like California.

In addition between the first nine atmospheric rivers which happened in January and December there has been very little precipitation, the majority of rain coming in these heavy extreme bursts that are often deadly

This isn’t to say the rain hasn’t helped. The atmospheric rivers have pushed the state out of extreme drought into atmospheric and moderate drought stages which are slightly better. So far at least two people have died in the March rains and 20 were killed in January. Currently more that 50,000 people are without power.