Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts

Monday, 14 February 2022

California woes

February heat wave in California


The drought in California continues and now includes a rare winter heat wave. It was in the 80Fs this weekend in LA during the Super Bowl. The second week of February offered a preview of summer for southern Californians as unusually early heat set records from San Diego to San Francisco. Temperatures 15-20F above normal were seen in southern California from Wednesday through Sunday. Hot and dry conditions mean greater fire hazard. People are saying there is no more fire season as the fire hazard continues all year round these days. They are now praying for rain and no frost. 

California saw major storms in December that pushed parts of the state out of the most severe categories of drought. The storms brought record rainfall and snow – some areas received more than 122in of snow over seven days and reached 159% of normal for the time period. 

Meanwhile, in Northern California, vintners reported the smallest harvest in 10 years. As in other places, they report the quality of the grapes is outstanding even if there is so much less available. 

Monday, 25 October 2021

Could the West coast drought be over?

https://twitter.com/i/status/1452473186012983297 


Torrential rains and high winds pummeled the west coast from Oregon to central California dumping record rainfall in an 'atmospheric river' causing flooding and massive problems. Sonoma and Santa Rosa counties had more than 7 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. Mt. Veeder had a whopping 10 inches of rain in 24 hours - most in #NapaValley according to the official tally. Record rainfall after record drought. Climate change is definitely here. The “bomb cyclone” is a rare meteorological event. 

I wonder what effect it will have on the vineyards. At least they had already harvested the grapes. 

One good thing, the #DixieFire has been declared 100% contained @ 963,309 acres.


Yosemite Falls roared back to life. 

But the drought ain't over yet. 


Saturday, 14 August 2021

California is running out of water

This could be a record bad year for wines, which could result in decreased supplies and increased cost across the board. In France, they are predicting 30% lower yields than normal due to the late frost early in the season. In California, they are reducing their yield on purpose by cutting some of the grape clusters off to concentrate moisture in the remaining clusters to save the crop altogether. 

Many of the classic winemaking towns have restricted water supplies. Some have even denied farmers access to the reservoirs completely. Nearly 1000 landowners in Mendocino county were told there wasn't enough water for them. An emergency law passed enables the government to prohibit people from diverting water. All these people flocked to the sunshine in the west without considering if they could survive there. What to do when you have millions of people and drought for two years in a row? The Russian River valley known for its vineyards is in dire straits with farmers trucking water to their vineyards. The Dixie Fire in the Sierra Nevada is the largest wildfire in Calfornia's history. 

When the NY Times does an article about vineyards suffering, you know it's bad. But it's a really interesting article about two different methods of growing grapes. One manages the vineyard without watering and other interventions, the other waters in interesting patterns. It seems that watering in vineyards causes the grapes to keep their roots shallow. Avoiding watering encourages the vines to grow deep roots in search of water thereby increasing their resilience to other climatic conditions and pestilence. 

We've decided not to water and once again we seem to have made a decision that makes sense without us knowing so scientifically. But it makes sense to me that if vines grow long above ground they would have to grow long roots below ground to anchor themselves. And they do. 

Curiously, when we first moved here, there were no mushrooms growing on the land. Since we planted trees, we've got many varieties of mushrooms popping up all over the place, suggesting that the earth is returning to a natural vegetative state and the fungi have moved in. That means the land is healing itself and for that I am grateful. Land that has fungi should retain moisture better and should also drain better as they add structure to the soil that enables penetration. 

As of the 12th of August, at 122 mm, we've already had twice as much rain as in all of June or July. The grapes are finally getting plumper. But do they have the time to get to a nice size before veraison?





 

PS Hamel Family Wines switched their vineyard to dry farming with excellent results. 


Monday, 10 May 2021

Drought in California, again!

The U.S. Drought Monitor map shows the entire Bay Area in extreme drought conditions as of May 4, 2021.
U.S. Drought Monitor


The San Francisco Bay area has gone from severe to extreme drought in just two weeks. 

Wells are drying up in the San Joachin Valley because of less snow in the Sierra Nevada. 

Sonoma County supervisors declared a drought emergency and vineyards in the Alexander Valley are scaling back crop production. 

North Coast wineries are preparing for another wildfire season. 

My heart bleeds for the people who worked so hard to establish such a wonderful legacy of creating the nectar of the gods. But what's the solution?  It will only continue to get worse most likely until California suffers the ultimate disaster. And yet people continue to plant more crops and expand into new territories whether it makes sense or not. And their places burn yet they rebuild. I suppose if the insurance pays, they have to. 

Reservoirs are running low and there are no conservation measures in place. And it's only May. I fear what the summer will bring. 



Wednesday, 7 October 2020

Earth is heating up

 

From Statista Infographics

NASA is monitoring all kinds of climate statistics. The latest data on temperature show that August of this year was 2.14C degrees higher than a selected average of measurements from the 1880s until now. Small wonder that California is burning. The epic scale of the wildfires is growing with the increase in temperature and this year reached a shocking new milestone -- one of the fires, The August Complex, on the border between San Francisco and Oregon has burned more than 1 million acres. The total acres burned this year so far is double any previous figure, at a staggering 4 million acres burnt. 

New York Times

New York Times



Thursday, 1 October 2020

California is burning again


Horrible fires in California have killed people and destroyed structures. At least 19 wineries have been destroyed or damaged by the Glass fire. As the fire made its way across wine country, about 70,000 people were evacuated. Vintners who’d fled the blaze returned to the area to discover in many cases that their life’s work had been destroyed. Here’s the latest on the winery and restaurant burning, businesses damaged or lost in the fire.

In some cases, the vines were charred but the buildings stood. In other cases, the buildings were destroyed with minimal damage to the vineyards. So unpredictable, yet so deja vu. People are leaving California never to return, after several years of repeated hell. Oregon and Washington states are ablaze as well, all this while America's cities are being destroyed by angry mobs. 

Bob and Jody Lipkin, owners of Lattitudes & Attitudes sailing magazine, for which we write often, lost everything. They left with their two cats and one van, leaving everything else behind as they evacuated with the fire cresting the hills around their home. Fortunately, they were insured. 



 #GlassFire: 51,266 acres, 2% contained.

#ZoggFire: 55,046 acres, 9% contained. #CreekFire: 307,051 acres, 44% contained. #BearFire/#NorthComplex: 314,949 acres, 79% contained. (#NorthComplexWestZone: 84,595 acres, 95% contained.) #BobcatFire: 114,438 acres, 63% contained.

Tuesday, 29 October 2019

Sonoma fires


Today, our hearts are with the people of California who again are suffering from the effects of wildfires. The Kincaid fire has ravaged at least three wineries, including the historic Soda Rock Winery which has been in place since the 1800s. All that is left is the stone facade of their main building and a steel sculpture of a boar called Lord Snort, a Burning Man artwork. They posted the photo on Facebook as sympathetic messages came from all over the world.


The Jackson Family Winery, Robert Young Estate Winery and Vineyard, Garden Creek Vineyards, The Field Stone Winery and Moville Vineyards reportedly also suffered extensive damage. The Alexander Valley is home to about 5,000 acres of vineyards with 31 wineries and 82 growers. Most vintners completed their grape harvest just last week and were in the critical stages of crush. Wind gusts up to 100 mph were reported but have now calmed somewhat. Firefighters are struggling to contain the fires before strong winds are forecast to return.

A new blaze broke out yesterday near the Getty Centre on the west side of Los Angeles hundreds of kilometres from where crews were fighting the state’s biggest and most destructive fire, the Kincade, north of San Francisco. Nearly 200,000 were evacuated and power was cut to millions to avoid exacerbating the potential for new fires. Some argue the power cuts are making it more difficult to escape and to fight the fires. The power companies are saying they can't survive the liability. What a conundrum. At least no one has died.

PostScript 30-10-19: The National Weather Service issued a new warning today: the Extreme Red Flag Warning, for a high-wind event taking place in much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties through Thursday evening.

This is unprecedented. A massive area has been evacuated and more is under advisory.

Thursday, 7 December 2017

LA region fires affect vineyards




First it was the northern wine country; now the Skirball fires are ripping through the outskirts of Los Angeles. Almost 200 homes have been destroyed by the fires which remain out of control. About 200,000 people have been told to evacuate. Loss of power is reported at more than 250,000 homes in Ventura County. The San Diego Freeway was closed. Fueled by hot Santa Ana winds, it is unusual that a wildfire like this has ripped through in December. A state of emergency has been declared yet again.

Friday, 13 October 2017

Some ways you can help the California fire victims

Google Crisis Map 
California’s Wine Country is in a state of emergency as more than a dozen wildfires burn through large swaths of land in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, and Yuba counties. The fires have destroyed at least 3,500 homes, caused at least 30 fatalities, and forced an estimated 25,000+ residents to evacuate, with that number expected to rise. 8000 firefighters are involved in the fight, some from as far away as Australia.

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

Wine country fires

After
Before
My heart goes out to all the Californians whose lives are completely disrupted by the horrendous fires raging through Napa and Sonoma. Dry conditions and strong winds caused such rapid escalation and devastation. More than 50,000 acres engulfed in Napa. Many injuries, at least ten known dead and the toll is likely to rise.

They said the grape harvest has already been completed for most, but the impact on the wineries and vineyards is inestimable at this time. Growing grapes and making wine is a labor of love. Many livelihoods and lives will have been destroyed by this tragic development.



Wednesday, 28 September 2016

Proof of terroir



My recent interest in malbec has led me to discover that vintners in California and in France have started producing their own malbecs. Those in France naturally claim that it's the original home of the malbec grape. Forget that they virtually gave up on that grape a long long time ago.

Argentina produces a stunning wine from the malbec grape grown in the high altitudes of the Mendoza region. So now everyone wants to bring back their version of malbec. Of course, there are folks out there who think that terroir is a bunch of nonsense. They suggest that it's all up to the grape and the vintner. So they plant some on rootstock in California; but the malbec grapes in Mendoza are on their original roots before Phylloxera. Now, I wonder if the malbec in Bordeaux was transplanted onto American root stock. I'll have to look that up. I think it would have been.

Friday, 21 August 2015

Vines are dying in California


I have a feeling I'm not going to like being right.   A comprehensive study has shown that climate change accelerated by man is responsible for the drought in California and will continue to have significant effects. An article in the New York Times said:

"A report this week by researchers at the University of California, Davis, projected that the drought would cost the California economy some $2.7 billion this year. Much of that pain is being felt in the state’s huge farming industry, which has been forced to idle a half-million acres and has seen valuable crops like almond trees and grape vines die."

It's not even that the grapes have become raisins, it says the grape vines have died. I've just found a picture and stats on how much impact the drought has had. They are not yet talking about this much but if you dig a little you'll find that it bad and getting worse.

"Dead and dying grape vines in Bakersfield, California, USA. Following an unprecedented four year long drought, Bakersfield is now the driest city in the USA. Most of California is in exceptional drought, the highest level of drought classification. 428,000 acres of agricultural land have been taken out of production due to lack of water and thousands of agricultural workers have lost their jobs."

If "wine is sunlight held together by water" as Galileo professed, then California is in deep trouble. They have way too much sunlight and way too little water.


Some producers are benefiting from the drought. Oregon and Washington state are replacing apples with grapes which need only half the water.   Vintners in regions of California less affected by drought say their yields will be lower but the wine tastier as a result of reduced rainfall.


But for many in the regions most affected, including Napa and Sonoma, the situation has been dire and getting worse sparking water wars. In each of the last four years, people thought it was as bad as it could get, but it keeps getting worse. And yet, it's even worse for the nut farmers.