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-Short Attention Span Theater-

Scientists warn California could be struck by winter 'superstorm'

2011-01-17

Am I the only one who wants to compare the names of these scientists with those who ginned up gerbil worming?
The threat of a cataclysmic California storm has been dormant for the past 150 years. Geological Survey director Marcia K. McNutt told the New York Times that a 300-mile stretch of the Central Valley was inundated from 1861-62. The floods were so bad that the state capital had to be moved to San Francisco, and Governor Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat to his own inauguration, the report notes.
And now if there's a puddle everyone starts running around with their hands over their heads.
Even larger storms happened in past centuries, over the dates 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605, according to geological evidence.
So there's still hope.

Posted by:gorb

#11 Good news is they can take all that gutter water and refill their drinking supply.

Water supply comes from the snow-pack. And that's already at record levels (with two more months of snow season)

so we should, what? Increase the infrastructure capacity to deal with a 400-yr storm?

Frank, my impression is that, with the exception of the High Desert areas, most of SoCal is already set up for '100-year'. But methinks if one show up, that's not where it's going to happen.

And clothes aren't for warmth or water repellancy, just pron or the Red Carpet...

That's Southern California, for those of you that are geographically impaired or get easily confused. Y'know - like asking folks in Syracuse if they can see the Statue of Liberty from their apartments...

When it hits (just statistics speaking), it'll more likely be central and northern California. The Central Valley will take it worst, since it's now more or less semi-desert.

Posted by: Pappy 2011-01-17 23:07

#10 Hey, whatcha say
There goes LA
Hey, whatcha know
Tie up the boat in Idaho

Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-01-17 22:54

#9 H.F. Of course the majority aren't legit :-) it is all go with the flow dude. And clothes aren't for warmth or water repellancy, just pron or the Red Carpet.

Posted by: Fire and Ice 2011-01-17 21:25

#8 I'm OK with this. Have fun Cali. You're prepared, right?

Posted by: Hellfish 2011-01-17 21:01

#7 Bring it.

Posted by: Abu Uluque 2011-01-17 19:38

#6 Cali is definitely overdue because there is a giant weather capacitor that builds up charge if you don't have a mega-storm for a century or so. It works much like the red capacitor in a roulette wheel that builds up red charge if black come up more than 3 times in a row. Bah! And double Bah!

Posted by: SteveS 2011-01-17 19:38

#5 so we should, what? Increase the infrastructure capacity to deal with a 400-yr storm? Yeah....right. Idiot grant whores

Posted by: Frank G 2011-01-17 19:14

#4 So they get one of these superstorms about every 300 years, and the last one was 400 years ago. Yep, they could be struck by one.

Posted by: Glenmore 2011-01-17 18:59

#3 Didn't Dick Cheney say something about the storm of 440 being one of his favorites? Good news is they can take all that gutter water and refill their drinking supply.

Yesterday out here our bodies had just become used to 20 degrees being hot; today it was 60 by noon...we call that weather.

Posted by: swksvolFF 2011-01-17 17:51

#2 In 1998 (an El Nino year), CA had very heavy rainfall. In Feb of that year, rainfall ranged from 300% to 700% of normal.

Flooding was bad. lives were lost and property lost but it was not a catastrophe because, unlike the situation in 1881, there is flood control infrastructure.

Posted by: Lord Garth 2011-01-17 17:35

#1 So Cali is coming due for a '1 in 200' storm...

I guess that means it's time to gin up the hysteria and get some grant money.

Posted by: Free Radical 2011-01-17 16:52

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