Winter Weather

There was a news story yesterday on NPR that our Colorado snow pack is low this winter. This will cause water shortages in LA this summer (since California gets our Colorado River water instead of us).

Water here is like in California - it's a real issue, and snow drives most of the water here. This is the first place I've lived that it is illegal to have a rain barrel under your run-off spout. Evidently I don't own the water that falls from the sky onto my property. Someone else owns the water rights, which are probably sold or leased to LA. Coming from Oklahoma this entire concept is unbelievable to me.

 

You have no rights to the water that falls on your own property? That's pretty extreme. If the downspout just 'happens' to break and the water ends up in your garden, will the water police come knocking?

 

Water rights are a complicated issue in the arid areas of the U.S. I'm only familiar with the issue in Utah, and that gets tricky enough

 

I understand it's a serious issue in many parts of the world, but it's simply not something I've experienced. I'm used to too much rainfall.

 

I'm not sure. I have seen a couple of sensationalized local news stories about the subject, however.

Same here - I'm from Oklahoma where, if someone tried to stop someone from using the water that fell on their land I bet there would be gunfire (Okies still remember the Dust Bowl days, and personal water rights is not a political issue any politician would touch).

 

I'm guessing allowing rainwater from your roof to enter your garden would not be a problem, so long as you did not prevent it from running off after the ground had absorbed as much as it will. After all, you are not required to pave your garden to prevent rain from soaking in. It's catching and storing it they want to prohibit.

I'd be inclined to put a rain barrel in the basement and secretly divert the rain to it. I'll bet it could be done in a way that was not conspicuous. But the idea of denying a property owner the right to the rain that falls on his house is pretty extreme. Makes me think of The Milagro Beanfield Wars. Though in that case it was a land grab by the rich of land owned and farmed by poor farmers.

 

Local temperatures are forecast to reach 15C later this week. Yesterday's headlines said we've just finished the warmest month-long winter period in something like 114 years. Right away, the denialists were saying 'Well, duh, that's because it's cyclical.' Actually, 114 years ago is when local weather record keeping began.

 

Me either. Silly IOC, I guess they fell for that old 'frozen wasteland' story. The worst part is we can't even have bikini mud-wrestling again until all the tourists go home. Some establishments offered to use Jello instead, but that was nixed by the health department, despite assurances that it wouldn't be resold to hospitals.