CHAPTER 10: A CHILD'S HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
“…I lost my language altogether.”
Walker, Chantal R. “Piyahu Nadu - Land of Flowing Waters: The Water Transfer from Owens Valley to Los Angeles 1913-1939,” masters thesis, University of California Los Angeles, 2014, pp. 59-61
The snowpack on the Sierra Nevada is creeping toward a five-hundred-year low…
“Multi-Century Evaluation of Sierra Nevada Snowpack.” National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/multi-century-evaluation-sierra-nevada-snowpack
Also:
Belmecheri, Soumaya, et al. “Multi-Century Evaluation of Sierra Nevada Snowpack.” Nature Climate Change, vol. 6, no. 1, 2015, pp. 2–3., doi:10.1038/nclimate2809
…the worst news for a state that anticipates well over half its water supply from snow fallen on these mountains.
California, State of. “California's Primary Watershed.” Sierra Nevada Conservancy, State of California , https://web.archive.org/web/20190102114609/https://sierranevada.ca.gov/ca-primary-watershed/
The snow is supposed to melt gradually during California’s typical, dry summers, continually replenishing the reservoirs.
Ingram, B. Lynn, and Frances Malamud-Roam. The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow. University Of California Press, 2015, p. 210
Minnesota delivers the coldest winter in thirty-five years.
“Coldest Winters in Twin Cities History: 1873-2014.” Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 23 June 2019, http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/journal/coldest_winters.html
When the wind chill hits forty-eight below zero…
“Twin Cities Wind Chill Temperature History.” Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 2 Jan. 2020, http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/twin_cities/mspwindchill.html
In California these months are the warmest since we started keeping track in 1895…
According to the National Climatic Data Center Statewide Average Temperature Ranks, January-September 2014 set record heat. The author compiled this data from viewing data for multiple months on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website:
“National Climate Report - September 2014.” National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201409
Also:
The following source also confirms that that 2014 was California’s warmest winter since record keeping began.
Swain, Daniel. “California Weather Blog.” California Weather Blog, Weather West, http://weatherwest.com/
…the worst in twelve hundred years. [drought]
Griffin, Daniel, and Kevin J. Anchukaitis. “How Unusual Is the 2012-2014 California Drought?” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 41, no. 24, 2014, pp. 9017–9023., doi:10.1002/2014gl062433
…the third largest ever recorded in the contiguous United States…
Bacon, S. N., and S. K. Pezzopane. “A 25,000-Year Record of Earthquakes on the Owens Valley Fault near Lone Pine, California: Implications for Recurrence Intervals, Slip Rates, and Segmentation Models.” Geological Society of America Bulletin, vol. 119, no. 7-8, Jan. 2007, pp. 823–847., doi:10.1130/b25879.1
…killed twenty-seven people…
This information is on the earthquake memorial monument in Lone Pine.
…collapsed a double-decker section of the Nimitz Freeway and killed forty-two people.
Feldman, Bernard J. “The Nimitz Freeway Collapse.” The Physics Teacher, vol. 42, no. 7, Oct. 2004, pp. 400–402., doi:10.1119/1.1804657
About eight hundred years ago…abandoned crops and dwellings and moved far away.
Kemp, Brian M, et al. “Prehistoric Mitochondrial DNA of Domesticate Animals Supports a 13th Century Exodus from the Northern US Southwest.” PloS One, Public Library of Science, 26 July 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28746407
They likely fled famines caused by droughts that did not go away, megadroughts lasting centuries.
Seager, Richard, and Edward R. Cook. “Medieval Megadroughts in the Four Corners Region: Characterization and Causes.” Medieval Megadroughts in the Four Corners Region: Characterization and Causes, 2007, http://ocp.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/drought/PDFS/Seager_Cook_SAA-1.pdf
A more stable climate in the West beginning in the late 1800s…
Seager, Richard, and Celine Herweijer. “Causes and Consequences of Nineteenth Century Droughts in North America.” Drought Research, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, http://ocp.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/drought/nineteenth.shtml