5 ms·

Five Years of Drought

79 points by uptown 10y ago

foota 10y ago
Some really cool maps in here, definitely recommend checking out!
Retric 10y ago
It's going to get really interesting once most of the prehistoric water is used up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
- jmaygarden 10y ago
  I'm not familiar with that term. Are you referring to the Ogallala Aquifer? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer
  - Retric 10y ago
    In part, prehistoric water is also known as paleowater or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_water Basically all Aquifer's are used faster than the recharge which only works for so long. The Ogallala Aquifer is one example, but most of California pumps out water vastly faster than the recharge rate. This is not only used directly but also adds water to the water cycle which for example increases rainfall. Without that extra water things are going to get a lot dryer.
    - sologoub 10y ago
      That's why I still find it odd how little CA is investing in desalination and water recycling, compared with other arid places.
      - mmanfrin 10y ago
        What? We passed a proposition last election cycle for $7.5 billion in water measures. https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_1,_Water_Bond_(2014) https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_1,_Water_Bond... The legislature also passed laws regarding the use of water and monitoring: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB88 http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?... Water recycling plants are coming online that can recycle actual wastewater: http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_26160300/california-drought-san-joses-new-high-tech-water http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_26160300/california-dr... Less than a year ago, the largest desalination plant in the country went online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsbad_desalination_plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsbad_desalination_plant But please, keep telling people how little we're investing in to this.
        Retric 10y ago
        That plant has less than 20% of libia's desalination capacity and 6% of Saudi Arabia. There are 16,000 desalination plants world wide the US has less than 5% of the worlds capacity much of which sits unused. Sure there are good reasons for this, but US water use is still incredibly wasteful.
      - joelwilliamson 10y ago
        There will probably never be desalination cheap enough for irrigation, and non-agricultural uses don't add up to enough to make desalination nescessary.
        sologoub 10y ago
        Between desalination and water recycling, Israel seems to be doing a lot better than CA: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/world/middleeast/water-revolution-in-israel-overcomes-any-threat-of-drought.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/world/middleeast/water-rev... The key form CA is not to replace all water sources, but rather close the gap between rainfall and water needs. Right now, we are doing this by pumping ancient water from aquifers, but as solar power and desalination techs mature, the price will come down and will likely be sufficient to cover that gap. The recycled water will also factor in.
- exabrial 10y ago
  Related note about fracking in the midwest: Water can be drilled for at 100ft-600ft usually. Despite that shallow depth, It will take 6,000+ years to restore the aquifer in the unfortunate event that the resource is not conserved. With the average oil/natural gas well depth of 3,500ft in the central midwest, it's important to remember that these wells are far below a region where they could affect the water table. Careless and irresponsible operators spilling toxic solvents is the real danger that needs to be addressed. This should also dispel the myth that the Keystone pipeline poses a major risk to the aquifer, if every engineering precaution were to break down and the worst happen. Now if we could just figure out a way to cheaply transmit all this wind power we have in the midwest back east....
  - sdm 10y ago
    The comment about the Keystone pipeline is a bit non sequitur. The Keystone pipeline has nothing to do with fracking at all and has nothing to do with oil wells in the US central midwest. It will carry unconventional heavy crude from the Athabasca oil sands in Northern Alberta to refineries along the US gulf coast. Plus currently, Oil sands is generally mined not drilled -- though as the oil on the surface runs out there will be more in situ wells if the economics can support. Thus far most of the extraction of Athabasca oil sands has been done by open pit mining. The objections to the Keystone pipeline have two main focal points: (1) the risk of spills given the heavy crude is more difficult to clean up, and (2) that it will ease the extraction of oil and put more green house gasses in the atmosphere.
lumpypua 10y ago
This guy has some other great maps worth checking out as well. I think his sharknado one is awesome: https://adventuresinmapping.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/how-to-sharknado-map/ https://adventuresinmapping.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/how-to-...
liveshops_ 10y ago
I like the optimist's drought map! It's like "the drought is half full. It would be interesting to track the effects of the drought, specifically in California. I feel like a map like that would light up the entire US.
karma_vaccum123 10y ago
I wonder at what point we Californians stop describing this as a drought.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
niftich 10y ago
A very high-quality submission full of good visualizations of interesting data. The narrative in the article describes the rationales for arriving at some of the visualization formats. This was as much of a 'making-of' article as a presentation of the end results; highly recommend.
adevine 10y ago
What is the takeaway, though, from looking at drought in this "% in drought over 5 years" manner? For example, central Texas had horrible drought for much of this time, only to end in severe flooding. Seems like a better metric would be average total rainfall over this period, and then year-to-year variance.
exabrial 10y ago
The great news is 2016 has a great year for drought recovery... so far: https://www.drought.gov/drought https://www.drought.gov/drought Hopefully California can get some love. Here in Kansas, we're having an uncharacteristically wet summer. Many of my friends that planted corn, milo, and hay are looking at major bumper crops this fall.
- thomasfoster96 10y ago
  Milo[0] can be grown as a crop? :) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_(drink) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_(drink)

79 points by uptown 10y ago

foota 10y ago

Some really cool maps in here, definitely recommend checking out!

It's going to get really interesting once most of the prehistoric water is used up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

jmaygarden 10y ago
I'm not familiar with that term. Are you referring to the Ogallala Aquifer? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer
- Retric 10y ago
  In part, prehistoric water is also known as paleowater or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_water Basically all Aquifer's are used faster than the recharge which only works for so long. The Ogallala Aquifer is one example, but most of California pumps out water vastly faster than the recharge rate. This is not only used directly but also adds water to the water cycle which for example increases rainfall. Without that extra water things are going to get a lot dryer.
  - sologoub 10y ago
    That's why I still find it odd how little CA is investing in desalination and water recycling, compared with other arid places.
    - mmanfrin 10y ago
      What? We passed a proposition last election cycle for $7.5 billion in water measures. https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_1,_Water_Bond_(2014) https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_1,_Water_Bond... The legislature also passed laws regarding the use of water and monitoring: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB88 http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?... Water recycling plants are coming online that can recycle actual wastewater: http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_26160300/california-drought-san-joses-new-high-tech-water http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_26160300/california-dr... Less than a year ago, the largest desalination plant in the country went online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsbad_desalination_plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlsbad_desalination_plant But please, keep telling people how little we're investing in to this.
      - Retric 10y ago
        That plant has less than 20% of libia's desalination capacity and 6% of Saudi Arabia. There are 16,000 desalination plants world wide the US has less than 5% of the worlds capacity much of which sits unused. Sure there are good reasons for this, but US water use is still incredibly wasteful.
    - joelwilliamson 10y ago
      There will probably never be desalination cheap enough for irrigation, and non-agricultural uses don't add up to enough to make desalination nescessary.
      - sologoub 10y ago
        Between desalination and water recycling, Israel seems to be doing a lot better than CA: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/world/middleeast/water-revolution-in-israel-overcomes-any-threat-of-drought.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/30/world/middleeast/water-rev... The key form CA is not to replace all water sources, but rather close the gap between rainfall and water needs. Right now, we are doing this by pumping ancient water from aquifers, but as solar power and desalination techs mature, the price will come down and will likely be sufficient to cover that gap. The recycled water will also factor in.
exabrial 10y ago
Related note about fracking in the midwest: Water can be drilled for at 100ft-600ft usually. Despite that shallow depth, It will take 6,000+ years to restore the aquifer in the unfortunate event that the resource is not conserved. With the average oil/natural gas well depth of 3,500ft in the central midwest, it's important to remember that these wells are far below a region where they could affect the water table. Careless and irresponsible operators spilling toxic solvents is the real danger that needs to be addressed. This should also dispel the myth that the Keystone pipeline poses a major risk to the aquifer, if every engineering precaution were to break down and the worst happen. Now if we could just figure out a way to cheaply transmit all this wind power we have in the midwest back east....
- sdm 10y ago
  The comment about the Keystone pipeline is a bit non sequitur. The Keystone pipeline has nothing to do with fracking at all and has nothing to do with oil wells in the US central midwest. It will carry unconventional heavy crude from the Athabasca oil sands in Northern Alberta to refineries along the US gulf coast. Plus currently, Oil sands is generally mined not drilled -- though as the oil on the surface runs out there will be more in situ wells if the economics can support. Thus far most of the extraction of Athabasca oil sands has been done by open pit mining. The objections to the Keystone pipeline have two main focal points: (1) the risk of spills given the heavy crude is more difficult to clean up, and (2) that it will ease the extraction of oil and put more green house gasses in the atmosphere.

lumpypua 10y ago

This guy has some other great maps worth checking out as well. I think his sharknado one is awesome: https://adventuresinmapping.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/how-to-sharknado-map/ https://adventuresinmapping.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/how-to-...

liveshops_ 10y ago

I like the optimist's drought map! It's like "the drought is half full. It would be interesting to track the effects of the drought, specifically in California. I feel like a map like that would light up the entire US.

karma_vaccum123 10y ago

I wonder at what point we Californians stop describing this as a drought.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

niftich 10y ago

A very high-quality submission full of good visualizations of interesting data. The narrative in the article describes the rationales for arriving at some of the visualization formats. This was as much of a 'making-of' article as a presentation of the end results; highly recommend.

adevine 10y ago

What is the takeaway, though, from looking at drought in this "% in drought over 5 years" manner? For example, central Texas had horrible drought for much of this time, only to end in severe flooding. Seems like a better metric would be average total rainfall over this period, and then year-to-year variance.

exabrial 10y ago

The great news is 2016 has a great year for drought recovery... so far: https://www.drought.gov/drought https://www.drought.gov/drought Hopefully California can get some love. Here in Kansas, we're having an uncharacteristically wet summer. Many of my friends that planted corn, milo, and hay are looking at major bumper crops this fall.

thomasfoster96 10y ago
Milo[0] can be grown as a crop? :) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_(drink) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_(drink)