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| Las Tablas Creek, Paso Roble |
California is experiencing yet another series of storms that have battered the coast and much of the state in recent weeks. Floods, mudslides and snow have taken their toll. Montecito, Santa Barbara and other communities have been evacuated. It's a mess. Highway 101 which runs along the coast is closed. More rain is expected today. A 5-yo boy was swept away from his mother and not found. Massive trees down on buildings and burnt hillsides turned into hill slides. The entire SF Bay area is under flood watch.
Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Anniston, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were all ordered to evacuate from their homes in Montecito. Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi are sheltering at their home which is on high ground but next to a raging creek.
The vineyards that are reporting thus far are noting positive effects. The soil is saturated, the creeks are flowing for the first time in years, and the reservoirs are filling. Vineyards flooding is nothing new. You can find plenty of photos from prior years, and the vines don't seem to have suffered from winter flooding.
Winter rain and snow typically provide much of the water used throughout the year in California, which has suffered several years of punishing drought. But the rate at which these storms are hitting is making it difficult for emergency services to keep up. No one is yet saying whether the frequency and severity of these storms are related to climate change, but I'll bet it's on the backs of minds everywhere.
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