Sac County reporting. Rain is really kicking our asses right now. Flood plains next to my work are 85-90% capacity and will likely flood over. Stockton flooded just recently. Last time we had rain like this was in 97/98. May possibly get worse if this keeps up.

EDIT: Also, potential for the I-5 to flood at Laguna Blvd. Shoulders are overflowing and within five feet of cresting onto the roadway.

I'm in California and have been for a while. It's ironic you're being downvoted, because you're right. California's climate is cyclical, the last several decades have been several years of drought followed by flooding. I will say that California being huge is probably part of the disconnect. Northern and southern California have very different climates, and a climate disaster in one part of California could easily be 500 miles away from the Californians hearing about it on the news.

I'm not sure why people are downplaying the fires though. I'll never forget the 911 call where the caller asked where to go to escape the fire and the dispatcher could only say "I'm sorry, I don't know."

California's just like everywhere else. Mostly, life is normal. Sometimes, bad stuff happens.

Webb is in an interesting position regarding this topic.

The moment a service mission to Webb would actually make any economic sense, we would also have the ability to launch far greater telescopes without complicated folding mechanism for far less money.

Look at one of my responses. There is data issued by the state of California that shows the years I formed this opinion were, in fact, rainier, more snow, and more fires that were normal.

Edit. Hit enter too quick. Yes, every state has a problem. All of this hostility is because I had the audacity to point out that my opinion was that parts California either had flood years or drought years. Then I had the audacity to back my childhood opinion with facts.

Why terrible?

> Each year will have the worst blank of the decade.

That can happen when things are getting progressively worse.

In Norcal, we have winter rains. It's winter now. And raining. Totally normal.

And your point is...?

Why are you trying to cover for the shockingly inept California government? There's literally no excuse for allowing the population to increase by MORE THAN THE TOTAL POPULATION OF PENNSYLVANIA and not adding any significant reservoir capacity.

SSSHHH!!!! Don't tell people this!

California sucks. It's a shit-hole. The whole thing, top to bottom, side to side. Don't come.

I'm hoping that one day we will be able to service JWST, even though right now it is impossible.

The issue has been ongoing since the 50's and 60's, but the long history of water rights state responsibilities and ownership by private companies go back to the founding.

Companies were never intended to be allowed to pollute the water systems as they did, and Farmers know better when they do have the support needed to do things properly.

BOTH are base needs of a society PERIOD, and that sis why the term "Nature and Natures God" was used.

N. Shadows

Webb can never be serviced, so keeping Hubble up and running as backup makes sense.

It will. And then there’ll be another drought. Then it’ll rain a bunch. Then another drought. Then fires, then rain again. Then another drought, followed by some fires, and then some rain. And we’ll be surprised by this. It’ll be on the news, naturally. Each year will have the worst blank of the decade. We’ll definitely click links associated with such predictable weather patterns. And we also won’t change a thing and be fine in the end. Miraculous?

Sites isn't even on a river, so it'll require transport to and from the Site.

Agreed. California has ignored their infrastructure for half a century now while population has exploded. It's no wonder our reservoirs all get almost totally drained every year when we haven't bothered to build new storage capacity to match population growth.

And half the fires are caused by a power company they aren't even progressive enough to properly regulate, let alone make state owned like PPE deserves.

Not true at all and not a limiting factor on water storage. There's a huge dam in the pipeline that they've been trying to get going for more than half a century at this point.

https://www.ktvu.com/news/a-new-mega-reservoir-in-final-planning-for-california

Beyond that, putting a dam in front of a valley isn't the only form of water reservoir. Sure, we don't have a lot of opportunities for mega-reservoirs left but that doesn't prevent us from building cisterns and other water storage and reclamation infrastructure across the state.

just fyi, your personal experience isn't even close to what the majority of californians experience. The majority of people have always lived in or around the LA or SF area and did not experence these crushing snows or flooding you are talking about. When I was growing up there, I remember only one hailstorm in the silicon valley. That was about as bad as you got in terms of cold weather for the majority of the people who live in California....

Not much to lose by it, and it would be a valuable training ground.

Also See Texas: California waxes and waines droughts 4 always.

Being born here and living 99% of my life in CA, I can tell you that it was a beautiful childhood being raised in the Redwoods. We lost our home to a flood, and another was damaged by an earthquake. Living my adult life and raising children on the gorgeous Central Coast has also been a wonderful experience. We lost our home to a wildfire a few years ago. I can totally understand why 12 year old you would say no thanks to living here. Shit happens no matter where you go. California really is a beautiful state and it's home to me, can't really see myself anywhere else.

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itll be great to somehow contain it in the country..

dams... lots of dams

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