{"id":9714,"date":"2017-01-11T14:13:12","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T19:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/?p=9714"},"modified":"2017-01-11T14:13:12","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T19:13:12","slug":"california-floods-its-fields-to-keep-its-cities-from-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/2017\/01\/california-floods-its-fields-to-keep-its-cities-from-flooding\/","title":{"rendered":"“California floods its fields to keep its cities from flooding”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent rains on the West Coast have caused many of the rivers there to flood, threatening many cities as well as cropland. \u00a0Levees are being overtopped and mudslides and fallen trees are blocking roads through the region. \u00a0You can read more about the impacts of the storm and view pictures of the conditions at SFGate.com<\/em> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wired.com noted that officials were opening weirs (gates) on levees in the Sacramento area to allow flood waters to flow into fields rather than flood vulnerable areas in cities. \u00a0This is the first time it has been done in a decade as the area has been gripped in recent years by an extreme drought. \u00a0You can read about how they manage the water flow at\u00a0https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2017\/01\/california-flooding-keep-cities-flooding<\/a>\/.<\/p>\n

This is not the only time that serious flooding has been a problem in California. \u00a0In fact, the Wired article notes: “All of these checks and balances are in place because California\u2019s tendency to flood is almost as notorious as its habit of running dry. \u201cTurns out, we have the most variable climate in nation for water,\u201d says Marty Ralph<\/a>, research meteorologist and director of the Scripps Institution\u2019s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. \u201cYear to year, we vary by 40 or even 50 percent from average.\u201d Most eastern states only fluctuate by 10\u00a0percent either way.”<\/p>\n

Scientific American published a recent article<\/a> describing one of the worst floods in the history of California. \u00a0In 1861 a massive flood that\u00a0affect central and southern California occurred after 43 days of heavy rain. \u00a0According to the article, “this disaster turned enormous regions of the state into inland seas for months, and took thousands of human lives. The costs were devastating: one quarter of California\u2019s economy was destroyed, forcing the state into bankruptcy.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Vineyards remain flooded in the Russian River Valley, Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, in Forestville, Calif. A massive storm system stretching from California into Nevada lifted rivers climbing out of their banks, flooded vineyards and forced people to evacuate after warnings that hillsides parched by wildfires could give way to mudslides. (AP Photo\/Eric Risberg)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent rains on the West Coast have caused many of the rivers there to flood, threatening many cities as well as cropland. \u00a0Levees are being overtopped and mudslides and fallen trees are blocking roads through the region. \u00a0You can read more about the impacts of the storm and view pictures of the conditions at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":9715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-and-ag-in-the-news","category-crops","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9716,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9714\/revisions\/9716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/climate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}