What is this even suppose to mean? How did I forget about ground water? What does drought recovery have to do with the redirecting of canals?
Ground water or the water table will not recover anytime soon without man made canals. Humans built canals and irrigation systems which turned ponds into lakes and dust into moist dirt. We then took these canals away, no mother earth is going back to how it would be without human interaction.
http://naturalresources.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=5921
Simple. A drought means there is a deficiency/lack of moisture that has a negative impact on us and the environment. These impacts can be short-term such as during a growing season or they can be long-term such as the changes to the hydrology of a major river.
You stated that there isn't a severe drought occurring in California because there has been an increase in rainfall in northern California and Mt. Hood has had record snowfall. This single season of average to above average precipitation may have an impact on the intensity for the immediate future but looking at the long-term, which can be as long as five or more years, may not have a huge impact especially if conditions remain dry. I have heard 20 years can be a timeline regarding severe drought and the reversal of the effects.
One of the five categories to determining drought conditions is soil moisture content. You would think that water would easily infiltrate dry soil but because the soil has been compacted much of that water simply runs off. Landslides anyone?
If you look at the percent area of drought in California for 2014 on 12.31.2013, the percent area was just under 28% for D3-D4 and 0% for D4. On 7.15.14, they were 81.85% and 36.49% and on 10.7.14 they were 82% and 58% respectfully.
Look at the drought monitor website and check out the California map for this week for 2014, and repeat for 2010, 2005, and 2000 and tell me what the map is showing you.
How is this trend not showing severe drought? One of the problems with water issues is we as a whole are a wet society and we think short-term. We have dry to drought conditions, we get some rain, and all of a sudden those issues are gone. People return to the status quo, conditions have not changed, and now people are being limited to watering their grass and they get upset.
As far as your website that you referenced there are two interesting points:
1. "With current precipitation at near-record lows......"
2. "Promises to avoid another man-made drought."
Precipitation is another index that categorizes drought conditions. Why would you state that there isn't a severe drought when your sources state that there is one because there has and is a negative impact on us (growing food and unemployment)?
As far as the second one, this is kind of a slippery slope, because the redirection and storage of water is a short-term solution (see how that seems to come up again?). All that is happening is the water is being shifted from one area to another. Additional water isn't being created and it really isn't changing the weather is it?
Not sure how we went from the oblivious that complex habitat increases fish biomass to Ebola to drought but it is fun isn't it?
Funny how everything relates to everything else huh?
