Climate change forecast: More intense deluges and downpours Down Under.
Dorothy Mackellar’s now classic view of Australia as a country of droughts and flooding rains is likely to get a further boost with just a 2°C rise in global warming.
New findings from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, published in Nature Climate Change, have pointed to strong increases in rainfall during extreme precipitation events in Australia as a result of global warming.
This paper reveals that with just a rise of 2°C in global average temperatures, Australia will see a 11.3-30% intensification in rainfall from extreme precipitation events.
Greater average humidity led to a sharper increase in the intense rainfall events.
But even in areas where average humidity and rainfall was lower, suggesting increasing aridity, the most extreme rainfall events still saw an 11.3% increase in total rainfall with 2°C of global warming.
Australia’s infrastructure will need to be prepared to adapt to these more extreme rainfall events even if we act to moderate the global temperature rise to within 2°C."
The paper also went beyond the 2°C international Paris Agreement target, looking at what would happen with a 4°C rise in global temperature, which is a likely outcome based on current increases in the rate of carbon emissions.
ScienceDaily, 17 January 2017.
Retrieved April 17, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170117140252.htm University of New South Wales.

Drought disaster loans available in Maryland.
ATLANTA — The U.S. Small Business Administration recently announced that federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available in Allegany, Carroll, Frederick and Washington counties in Maryland as a result of the drought between May 1 and Dec. 10, 2016.
The loans are available to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and private nonprofit organizations.
The SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is available to eligible farm-related and nonfarm-related entities that suffered financial losses as a direct result of the drought.
With the exception of aquaculture enterprises, SBA can’t provide disaster loans to agricultural producers, farmers or ranchers.
Nurseries are eligible to apply for economic injury disaster loans for losses caused by drought conditions.
The loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that could have been paid had the disaster not occurred.
Applicants may apply online using the Electronic Loan Application (ELA) via SBA’s secure website at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela.
Information and application forms can also be obtained by calling the SBA’s Customer Service Center at 800-659-2955 (800-877-8339 for the deaf and hard-of-hearing) or by sending an email to disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.
Completed applications should be mailed to U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155.

Thousands of herders are fleeing their traditional grazing lands as a biting drought engulfs east Africa, and their animals have swept through farms and conservation areas.
Still, an undertow of grievance about history has always informed relations in Kenya’s highlands and is playing a major role in the crisis.
Local people say the latest migration of thousands of herders with tens of thousands of cows, goats and sheep in search of water and pasture has been triggered mainly by harsh weather patterns.
Their call to them to forcibly occupy the holdings of all large landowners in the area, black and white, has rattled Laikipia.
Shuel, who previously managed a Maasai-owned group ranch, says there should be a sensible compromise between heated demands for radical land restitution and the apocalyptic claims of a race war from British tabloids that focus on the perspectives of white settlers, many third-generation Kenyan citizens.
The UK conservation charities that bought the 90,000-acre ranch from Rowland took it in a completely new direction.
Ol Pejeta is operated on a non-profit basis and has an extensive community service set-up that includes the offer of grazing to pastoralists affected by drought.
The CEO of Ol Pejeta, Richard Vigne, says the latest confrontation points to the need for a more coordinated approach to ensure that communities benefit more from local resources.
“There must be a long-term, government-endorsed approach to secure this land for sustainable management.
A plan to build a 280-mile game-proof fence around Mount Kenya, not far from the Laikipia region, was endorsed by Pope Francis on his visit to the country in November 2015.

Spring will tell the fate of drought-stressed trees.
Within the next few weeks, it will become clear which trees will survive last summer’s drought.
“The trees struggled through the drought, but this was a good winter.” And all the rain and cold damp weather in March — even better, Hillman said.
They thrive when trees are weakened and can’t fight them off.
“In a drought, people think the tree is dying of thirst,” Hillman said.
In late March and early April, drought-stressed trees on Tucker Road in Dartmouth were blamed for two power outages days apart, according to Eversource.
Jim McBratney, president of Sylvan Nursery, 1028 Horseneck Road, Westport, said customers have called, asking for advice on their trees.
“A lot of mistakes made last year will rear their head this year.
They lost some of their oomph.” While fall is the best time to plant trees, early spring is not bad either, providing the tree gets enough water through the dry part of the summer.
“Really, the important part is to figure out a good way to water without letting the water run off,” Hillman said.

Recent rains ease local drought concerns.
Now, those concerns have since been subdued after a few wet weeks during March and more precipitation expected to come.
The long-term average precipitation for the month is 2.05 inches.
Guinan also said some locations in northeast Missouri received a total of about six inches of precipitation between October and March.
“Just within a few weeks some areas have received as much precipitation that they had received in five months,” Guinan said.
Over the next week, Guinan said he expects the northeast Missouri area to get more precipitation, which he said is a good sign as we move forward into spring.
Balliew explained the city does have a drought plan and the city manager can authorize reasonable restrictions on city water if there is a drought.
Balliew said during that period “Kirksville was never in jeopardy of running out of any water.” During this winter, Balliew said water levels at the Hazel Creek Reservoir dropped about 33 inches, while Forest Lake dropped about 24 inches.
After recent rains, Balliew said Hazel Creek has gained 18 inches and Forest Lake is full.
“The fact that we had no moisture during the winter at all and we supplied the entire city and county through the whole winter on that one lake and only dropped (33 inches) — there’s some places in that lake that’s 70-feet deep — so, we’ve got plenty of water,” Balliew said.

Civil Code 4735(c) prohibited associations from fining or assessing an owner who let their yard “go brown” by not watering it during a declared state of drought emergency.
Under Civil 4735(a)(2) associations may not ban artificial turf, even after the drought emergency has ended.
Many association boards and managers may be misled by the end of the drought emergency, believing incorrectly that associations can now direct homeowners to remove the modifications made to landscaping in order to conserve water.
However, per Civil Code 4735(e), owners who have installed water-efficient landscaping measures cannot be required to remove them, even after the drought emergency.
So, for example, associations may not force residents to remove artificial turf installed during the drought emergency.
Furthermore, the right to install xeriscapes (low water-using plants) or artificial turf still is in place under Civil Code 4735(a).
As Governor Brown urged in his Executive Order, California residents should continue “maintaining conservation as a way of life.” Much of California is not naturally rich in fresh water resources, and wise property owners and associations will continue to be conservative with the use of water.
Common interest development associations (aka “HOAs”) should have architectural rules in place already to make sure that xeriscapes or artificial turf yards are presentable and an asset to the community.
The emergency-related provisions of Civil Code Sections 4735 and 4736 were not removed from the law.
The next time a state drought emergency is declared, the laws will again apply to California homeowners associations.

Elaine J. Hanford’s Bulletin Boards: 1) Geosciences; 2) Environmental Sciences; 3) Coastal Zone Management – 17 April 2017.
More great news from Elaine!
Check out this Oroville Dam before-and-after photo from Gonzalo Curiel.
Amazing!
Would you be interested in receiving these Bulletin Boards via email directly from Elaine?
The PDF and Word lists below contain the URLs.
Here are the lists in Word/PDF: Geosciences Bulletin Board – 17 April 2017 – compiled by Elaine J. Hanford What’s next in Seattle tunnel & where does Bertha go?
Bertha will be recycled for work and scrap http://www.enr.com/blogs/15/post/41809-with-bertha-landed-the-next-steps-in-building-the-seattle-tunnel Underwater video at the moment a 5.9M EQ struck in the Philippines Video: should the ocean floor be mined for minerals for high-tech?
Worth watching again – time-lapse videos of supercell thunderstorms & tornatoes This 70 myo elasmosaur was discovered in Montana “Nature Unleased” Indiana State Museum exhibit on why natural disasters occur Oklahoma serves as research laboratory of human-induced earthquakes Chicxulub meteor impact in the Yucatan may have triggered M6.0 EQ in Colorado Examining the role of polar glacial microbial populations in the carbon cycle Online database of ocean pollution and impact on species: “Litterbase” Link between volcanic eruptions and penguin survival on Deception Island “Rockfall Activity Index” uses automated LIDAR technology to improve rockfall analysis Drone footage of Volcan de Fuego & Volcan de Pacaya eruptions Data from 2016 Ecuador tsunami and EQ could help predict future impacts from similar events Down to Earth with: Planetary geologist James W Head III “What we knew” about East Antarctic Ice Sheet was not correct, but are they getting it right now?
Tracking minerals critical to national preparedness Mineral resource studies in Alaska Petroleum, oil shale, minerals and the potential for fuel batteries Daspletosaurus horneri – newly discovered species of Late Cretaceous Tyrannosaur Recent California droughts & floods linked to distinctive atmospheric waves of wavenumber-5 Sediments on Tibetan Plateau record late Miocene climate pattern http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Tibet_sediments_reveal_climate_patterns_from_late_Miocene_6_million_years_ago_999.html Palaeothentidae – diverse group of marsupials existed in South America up to about 13 myo Reconstructing feathered dinosaurs with new LSF technology based on high-definition images of preserved soft tissues Glacial upland surficial tills in New England provide major groundwater storage reservoir Travels in geology: Easter Island – volcanoes, petroglyphs and moai Environmental Science Bulletin Board – 17 April 2017 – compiled by Elaine J. Hanford 14 April 1935 was “Black Sunday” with a 1,000-mile storm during the Dust Bowl All those rains resulted in “Super Bloom” in California….then trampled by hordes of humans One of only 3 white wolves in Yellowstone severely injured, euthanized, investigation launched & necropsy scheduled Drought in California is officially over!

On April 7, 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown issued executive order B-40-17, formally ending the drought emergency. The order is not only confirmation of good news for California but also immediately changes the applicability of two important statutes in the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act. The Declaration of Drought Emergency was issued by Brown on Jan. 17, 2014, the culmination of several water conservation orders. Shortly after that declaration, the California legislature swiftly passed emergency legislation, adding certain protections to the Davis-Stirling Act regarding water conservation. Civil Code 4735(c) prohibited associations from fining or assessing an owner who let their yard “go brown” by not watering it during a declared state of drought emergency. Now that the statewide emergency declaration is rescinded, the statewide prohibition against enforcing landscape maintenance obligations against owners who refused to water their yards also has ended. This section still may apply if a local jurisdiction (city or county) has its own declaration of drought emergency still in place, so managers and boards would be well advised to check with their local jurisdiction for any such local declaration. Civil Code 4736 rendered…

Maven marks a milestone: Ten years of covering California water news.
The website is on track to hit 2 million page views within the next 30 days.
There are over 3000 subscribers on daily email service, 5700+ Twitter followers, and over 725 Facebook likes, with more signing up each day.
I want to publish the very best website on California water news, and I’m not done yet.
There’s always more here at Maven’s Notebook!
Please take a moment to visit my funder’s page, because without these organizations and sponsors in addition to my reader donations, this website couldn’t continue to operate.
The grant funds were used for fundraising consultants, a facilitator to help create a multi-stakeholder advisory committee, and a new webtool that I hope to be launching at the end of the month.
With your continued readership and support, there’s a lot to look forward to in the next ten years!
California Water Systems: Written in July of 2015, this page has received 49,509 hits.
Photo tour of the Imperial Valley: We visited the Imperial Valley right after the first of the year: lettuce, broccoli, cantaloupe and more growing in the field.

Kenyan Catholic university campaign aids drought-stricken communities.
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) — Students at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa joined faculty and staff to raise money and collect food for people living in Kenya’s drought-stricken communities.
In the process, the students learned that even a small donation could go a long way to ease the threat of starvation facing thousands of people in arid parts of the country.
Karen Rono, 20, a third-year law student, contributed $50 to the cause, enough to buy several sacks of corn or rice.
Another law student, Nelson Ng’ang’a, 20, said that seeing images in various media of suffering people motivated him to support the effort.
Mbae sent the first truckload of food and supplies April 7 from the university’s main campus, known as Langata, waving a school flag as students watched.
“This year, the university chose to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters affected by the drought,” he said.
“This was in response to the call by the Catholic bishops and the government.
“I have managed to raise money that has afforded me to purchase two sacks maize (corn) flour.
I thank God for this,” said Esther Wambui, 22, who is studying law.