Because sensationalized news isn’t an accurate representation of living here, and even with the occasional mudslides, a major wildfire affecting homes less than once a year (on average), and regular drought (that part sucks but is part of our normal weather cycle), California is beautiful, has just amazing weather, and offers so much natural beauty and outdoor activities that it’s worth it.

Everyone has to compromise on something to live where they live. I’m sure the weather in your state is absolute shite much of the time. That’s your compromise for living somewhere you can afford.

For nearly perfect weather year round, and all the aforementioned natural, scenic beauty, skiing, wine, beaches, mountains, hiking, big cities, agriculture, tech industry, deserts, national parks, national forests, Yosemite, the giant sequoias, the architecture, the landmarks, etc., we opt to live with regular drought and occasional major wildfires.

We used to live in Houston, which has had some of the worst flooding in US history. I am from Florida, which sees hurricanes nearly every year. I’ve been to Ohio, where it was just 34° below 0°. I’ve stayed in Michigan, where the wind chill in the winter is regularly -17°, and the lake effects snow stops everything. I’ve been to the PNW, which is arguably beautiful but super depressing with the constant drizzle.

I’ve spent more than a month of my life in Hawaii, which is amazing. But there’s not much skiing, and they don’t really have great wine. And it rains a lot there, too. Plus, it’s HUMID.

So, yeah. California, like every other place on Earth, is imperfect. But the trade-off is worth it.

YES BUT they never bothered to replace and reuse those places they drained off all the water from over the last 150 years, the Owens Valley comes to mind and their solution's seem to be to drain other states of their resources and thus the march towards more deserts is on.

and they call being the dumping grounds of others "Population Control" and all populations whether animal, vegetable or human require the same resources to exist and survive.

N. Shadows

Sigh… okay, literal Boomer.

(If you’re older than me, you’re a Boomer.)

Ah. But now that you said ‘78, you’re younger than me. Jesus, man. You’re a terrible Gen Xer.

I would absolutely love to visit California. Preferably on a 6 month plan. Wouldn't mind living there either. For the most part, all states have their built-in pros and cons.

Rewilding rivers will certainly help. The effect on the LA river alone was significant in achieving better ground water recharge. We do need to take that further and undo a lot of the concrete channels constraining urban river beds. We also need to develop and employ more agricultural processes that work with nature and result in less dependency on irrigation and tillage. There needs to be state and federal level leadership on this to make stewardship of the land just as important to industrial farming as the bottom line profits.

California has dammed nearly every safe place to put dams.

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Have you visited the state? Take a trip to the coastal Redwoods in the north, Big Sur in the middle, San Diego beaches and mountains, check out Yosemite, Joshua Tree and Anza Borrego, hike a couple miles of the PCT near the Muir Wilderness, check out the Alabama Rocks near Lone Pine and then Devil's Postpile. I've visited all 50 states and lived in 6 over my six decades of living and nothing...nothing holds a candle to the Golden State.

Where are the dams and reservoirs along the coast, where most of the rain is falling? What new reservoirs and dams has California built in the last 20 years in response to their population explosion?

California hasn't built any serious new water storage capacity in FOURTY YEARS despite the fact that the state population has grown by more than 15 MILLION during that time.

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Unusually wet.

Yes they are, as one who is stuck here, CA is the worst state in the union. For multiple reasons.

You do know California has dams and reservoirs?

Go back up the comments. I have backed my observations with Calufirnua supplied stats.

NOW if they would just do something to save and conserve that water, maybe growing things would help the planet Naturally instead of building energy consuming machines that supposedly clean the air and cool it down.

Ever get the idea that maybe it is about MONEY and NOT science being applied properly?

N. Shadows

Ok. I'm getting really tired of people reading part of my comment and comprehending less, so I will walk you through it. I said, " When I was growing up," which would imply 12-21. Old enough to be becoming aware of the world, but not an adult. I also said, "in the 70s and 80s," which covers 20 years, but we only need 10, so I grew up 78-88 or so. Which is exactly right.

This is the snow I saw. Most years showing well above average and one year showing double the average. It fits with my comment of "crushing snow"

This is the rain I saw. The beginning of my time frame marks the beginning of a significant increase in rainfall, a state wide increase that lasts years. Except I don't have the stats available to show that it is an increase, so this is California normal.

[This is the fire I saw](http://Long-term trends in wildfire damages in California https://emlab.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/documents/wildfire-brief.pdf) My idea for California's fire scene also developed on a peak period. It dropped off in th 90s before climbing.

My interpretation of California being a snow bound, flooding, burnt to hell state is statistically backed up for the time frame relevant to me, as was stated in my comment. Looking at the data I posted, California is drying out, getting less snow, and burning more. The Central valley has sunk 28 feet due to ground water not being replenishec.replenished.

You are establishing a drying out, dying environment as the great normal. This is how environmental destruction spreads because too many people today ignore older people who talk about how different their childhood was. You believe their experience is the ideal normal.

The literal definition of California is Hot Furnace. The 20th century was unusual.

Good news. The West needs the Pineapple Express.

Universities are already holding workshops for faculty to help them detect AI-written academic papers.

That's right. 40 million people must be wrong because this place is just horrible. Crappy weather, fires, earthquakes every day. Gosh, y'all should stay in Pennsyltucky, don't move here. No more room.

Wow, that's actually extremely impressive!

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The average amount of precipitation shows no trend over the last 90 years. What is changing is there is more rain vs. snow in the Sierras.

Source:California Office of Env. Health Hazard Assessment

You should catch up on this: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

This was in reference to AI, honestly I didn't know they could do half of the things they seem to be capable of. Kinda scary tbh. Sorry I guess I'm just out of the loop/uninformed about new technology.