From the Northern California Water Association – California already has one of the most variable climates in the United States, and it’s getting more extreme. Our “weather whiplash,” as it’s becoming known, is increasingly marked by long periods of warm, dry conditions punctuated by stronger and wetter atmospheric river storms. What’s more, research suggests that atmospheric rivers are becoming more intense. By now, we know that atmospheric river storms provide approximately half of our state’s annual precipitation but have also caused more than 90 percent of the floods in Northern California, resulting in staggering financial costs. Unfortunately, in Yuba County, those costs are all too familiar. Parts of our economy still haven’t recovered from devastating floods in 1986 and 1997. Recognizing the influence of atmospheric rivers on California’s changing climate, Yuba Water is working with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at UC San Diego, the California Department of Water Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others to implement Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations in the Yuba and Feather River watersheds. (more)