Sun Mar 3, 2013, 10:44 AM
nadinbrzezinski (116,800 posts)
We went for a long drive yesterday...(climate change)
Last edited Sun Mar 3, 2013, 10:46 AM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
This is still winter, and the ground going up to Julian is pretty dry already, in spite of the left over snow. The Cuyamaca lake is pretty low.
Oh please.....Except for along the coast and in the higher elevations, So Calif is basically a desert, which you should know dumb a$$. Most plants here have to be cultivated. Draught conditions are not unusual for us as we have very low rainfall. We also get a lot of fires, fueled by dry brush and high Santa Ana winds. Also a very typical condition here.
We do not have glo-bull warming. Our weather is greatly affected by the surface temps of ocean currents called el Nino and la Nina.
El Nino can bring a lot of rain into So Calif. Which actually is worse, as it causes floods, ruining roads and hwys and spurs a lot of shrub growth, setting us up for even worse fire seasons with all the extra fuel.
California is one of the highest taxed states in the country. If the idiots in Sacramento and San Diego can't allocate enough money to afford fire fighting equipment, and the tree huggers won't allow brush removal, then so be it.
As far as the Federal government goes, take that up with Obama, as he's the one that cancelled contracts for replacement air tankers in 2011, long before the sequester.
In 2002 the federal government had 44 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts. By 2012 the fleet had atrophied to nine. Some wildfire experts recommend that we need 30, 40, or even 50.
http://wildfiretoday.com/