Posts Tagged: "El Niño"

Unlike Big Bear Lake, which will collect the runoff snowfall or rain, much of the rest of southern California is ill equipped to take advantage of El Niño rains. Those familiar with southern California will know that in beach towns there are signs on or near drains warning people not to dump things into the gutter because whatever goes into the drain will be released into the ocean. That, of course, also means that water that falls in beach communities in southern California will not be collected, or even useful. Due to perpetual poor government planning, even if El Niño does drop large amounts of rain water on southern California much of it will simply wind up in the ocean.

We may not know the extent of rainfall California will receive for several months, but it has been made abundantly clear that El Niño is definitely coming. Even if we were to experience a wet and active El Niño this year, it wouldn’t likely be a healing salve for the entire state of California. El Niño’s effects are strongest in the southern parts of California. In the central and northern parts of the state, rainfall amounts aren’t really affected all that much. Furthermore, with much of California’s water reservoir system in the central and northern parts of the state, those basins will be unable to help capture excessive rainfall, which could mean real disaster for parts of Southern California.