Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 6 March 2018
Welcome snow slows California's plunge back to drought

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and supplier of water, plans to
RICH PEDRONCELLI vote in April on increased
PHILLIPS STATION, Calif. funding for conservation
(AP) — California water programs, spokeswoman
officials tromped through Rebecca Kimitch said.
long-awaited fresh snow- “One storm isn’t going to ...
drifts in the Sierra Nevada make up for what has been
mountains Monday, but a a very dry few months,”
welcome late-winter storm Kimitch said.
still left the state with less California’s rainy season
than half the usual snow for is often this kind of a cliff-
this late point in the state’s hanger, Daniel Swain, a
important rain and snow climate scientist at the Uni-
season. versity of California, Los An-
Runoff from snow in the geles, said last month.
mountains historically pro- The state is dependent
vides Californians with on a handful of significant
nearly a third of their water storms for its water, so things
for the whole year. Mon- can turn around quickly, he
day’s snow surveys in the said.
mountains by state water California’s reservoirs are at
officials, with news crews in 106 percent of their histori-
tow, is one of several close- In this Feb. 1, 2018 file photo, Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Pro- cal average for this point
ly watched gauges of how gram for the Department of Water Resources, leaves a snow covered meadow after conducting in the year thanks to last
much water California cit- the second snow survey of the season near Echo Summit, Calif. year’s rains, said Chris Or-
ies and farms will have. Associated Press rock, a spokesman for the
Plunging a rod into a snow state Department of Water
drift, snow-survey chief up to 8 feet 2.4 meters) of the year before last week’s month of the rain and snow Resources.
Frank Gehrke measured snow, Gehrke said. Across storm. By February, most season in the state. While the heavy snows
41.1 inches (104.4 centime- the Sierra, the state was at of Southern California was California emerged only in the Sierra Nevada are
ters) of snow Monday, al- 37 percent of normal snow- back in drought, owing to last year from a historic five- the main gift from the lat-
most all of it laid down by fall as of Monday. a dud of a rain and snow year drought that forced est storm, it helps that arid
a heavy winter storm that “Of course we don’t know season so far this year. mandatory water conser- Southern California got
rolled in Wednesday. what the rest of the month It would take six more storms vation for cities and towns, doused as well, Orrock
On Monday, the Phillips is going to bring,” Gehrke to bring the state up to its dried wells, and caused said.
Station measuring location said. “But it is a much rosier, normal winter precipitation massive die-offs of trees Rain in Southern Califor-
was up to 39 percent of happier picture than it was by April. The odds of that and many other native nia rain means reservoirs
the historical average for a week ago.” happening are about one- species. get filled and vital be-
the date, compared to just California had accumu- in-50, the National Weather The Los Angeles-based low-ground natural reser-
7 percent of its usual snow lated less than a quarter Service cautioned. Metropolitan Water District, voirs depleted during the
before the storm dropped of its normal snowpack for March is typically the last the country’s largest urban drought are replenished.q

Monarch butterfly numbers off for 2nd year in Mexico

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN (2.48 hectares) this win- Jorge Rickards, director
Associated Press ter. That was down about of the World Wildlife Fund
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The 14.7 percent from the 7.19 in Mexico, which partici-
number of monarch but- acres (2.91 hectares) the pated in the annual study,
terflies wintering in Mexi- previous winter. said a particularly busy hur-
can forests declined for a The monarch butterflies' ricane season across the
second consecutive year, migration is measured by insects' migration route
a government official said the area they cover in pine could have been a factor.
Monday. and fir forests west of Mex- "These climate phenom-
Alejandro Del Mazo, Mex- ico City. Millions of the but- ena without a doubt have
ico's commissioner for terflies make the 3,400-mile an impact on the migra-
In this March 13, 2005 file photo, Monarch butterflies gather on protected areas, said the (5,500-kilometer) migration tion," Rickards said.
a tree at the El Rosario Butterfly Sanctuary near Angangueo, monarchs clumped in trees from the United States and He also mentioned a
Mexico.
Associated Press covering about 6.12 acres Canada each year. March 2016 wind storm
and cold snap that devas-
tated the core of the but-
terfly reserve.
Monarch expert Lincoln
Brower, a biology professor
at Sweet Briar College in
Virginia who co-authored
a report about the 2016
storm, pointed to the ef-
fects of that storm's felling
of thousands of trees.
q