The California Drought - is there a way to break it?

November 28, 2014.  Joe Lizura Blog.  Not to be sarcastic, but have you heard that California is in a drought?  It's a big one for sure with major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno and San Diego facing shortages that may require even more water restrictions.

Folsom Lake during a normal year of rainfall

Around the state, there are farmlands and dairylands that have been abandoned, and mile after mile in the central valley normally very fertile lush farms are nothing more than dirt.

Up and down the state, reservoirs are nearly empty, and in some smaller towns where well water dried up months ago, daily water truck deliveries are now the norm.

A dried up Folsom Lake in January

So after three years of drought conditions, and lots of media coverage saying that it will take years to end the drought,  the question is how long "really"will it take for the drought to end?  Is it possible to end the drought in one year or will it take two or three years of heavy rains to finally restore our reservoirs to their normal levels?

The answer to that question is somewhat surprising because the answer really doesn't have much to do with how much rain falls as it has to do with how quickly storms come back-to-back, and here's why.

Having spent 25 years in California as a meteorologist, one thing I can tell you for certain is that our reservoirs fill up not by rainfall, but by run-off.  So equally as important, if not more so, is how quickly storms come in a row.  In order to maximize the impact of storms, they have to come one after another, because the first storm in a series soaks into the ground, which allows subsequent storms to be "run-off" which fills reservoirs.

So for example, let say the Sacramento area normally gets 25 inches of rain a year (that's actually how much they average annually), and the rain falls evenly from October thru April with a storm every other week. The run-off would be quite low because there would be too much time for the ground to dry out between storms - meaning a large part of each storm would be needed just to get the ground soaked again before the run-off begins.

Whereas, if you were to get all 25 inches of rain in just 8 weeks, the run-off would be huge and the reservoirs would be the recipients of more than enough rainfall to end the drought.

Now with that said, there are two other issues - one helps end the drought and one hurts it.  The first issue is how cold the storms are - the colder the better because the snow pack that builds up in the mountains will melt continuously over the spring with run-off over soaked ground.  The other issue is where the storms enter the state - if the storms soak northern California where the reservoirs are located, then clearly that would mean run-off going into reservoirs because that is where the water storage reservoirs are located.  If the storms come into Southern California, that would be the worst case because there are relatively no storage reservoirs in the southern part of the state, and all of that run-off would directly into the ocean.

So, the summary of all of this is that yes you can end a multi-year drought in one year, but it will take several key things happening in our favor - so let's keep the fingers crossed!

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A Heart-Melting Story

This has to be one the most amazing and touching stories that I have ever seen.  March 10, 2013.  Here is a story about a reunion between a gorilla and a billionare that will melt your heart.  Here is the link, be sure to watch the video, it's incredible. http://news.yahoo.com/watch-wild-gorilla-reunite-man-saved-him-video-191705855.html

What does a billionaire casino owner have in common with a wild gorilla? That sounds like it could be the opening line of a cheeky joke, but in actuality, what they have in common is a very heartfelt bond.

Damian Aspinall may be a billionaire casino owner, but he's also the founder of The Aspinall Foundation, a conservancy group dedicated to supporting global wildlife. Among its myriad conservancy projects, its most outstanding endeavor may be that it rehabilitates and reintroduces once captive gorillas back into the wild.

For Aspinall, one of those gorillas in particular, a youngster named Kwibi, captured his heart. The conservationist personally raised the animal for several years before setting him free in the Foundation's million-acre reserve in West Africa.
Five years later, Aspinall traveled back to Africa in order to check on Kwibi, who was now a fully-grown adult. The following video shows their touching reunion.

What’s of particular note is that conservationists on the reserve warned Aspinall that Kwibi had previously attacked the last two people who came in contact with him.
Nonetheless, it’s clear that this gorilla viewed his former protector with a higher regard than he had towards other human beings. And more surprising than abstaining from an attack, showed an attachment to him even five years after their last meeting.

 

It's not unheard of for wild animals to form bonds with their protectors. Anna Julia Torres, a well-known animal conservationist in Columbia, often cuddles with the lions she keeps on her nature reserve. But Torres sees her animals daily, while Aspinall hasn't been a presence in Kwibi's life for some time.

The work of the Aspinall Foundation and others like it are crucial to gorillas' survival. These animals remain on the precipice of extinction due to the presence of so many man-made threats, not the least of which is rampant poaching.

Human industry continues to view them as things, commodities to be bought and sold, or simply discarded. But as we continue our destruction of gorilla populations unabated, videos like this one demonstrate that these creatures have their own internal lives—ones which are very much worth honoring and protecting.

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The Electoral College

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9/29/12.  My daughter asked me the other day about how the electoral college worked and why there was one.  Today I saw a nice explainer piece on Yahoo, so I thought I'd share it:

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND HOW IT WORKS

Presidents are elected not by national popular vote but by an 18th century constitutional compromise called the Electoral College.

HOW IT FORMED

When framers were drafting the U.S. Constitution, there were two competing ideas on how to elect the president. One group said Congress should do it; the other said it should be a national vote of eligible citizens. There also were disputes over how much slaves should count in representation in Congress and over how power would be distributed between small and large states. The compromise became part of the second article of the Constitution, although the words "Electoral College" are not included. The electors pick the president and vice president.

VOTE TOTALS

Each state gets one electoral vote for each of its representatives in the House and Senate. The District of Columbia gets three votes. All told, there are 538 votes in the Electoral College. A candidate must have at least 270 to win. Except for Maine and Nebraska, states award all their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the state. In Maine and Nebraska, votes are apportioned by congressional districts. So in 2008, even though John McCain won Nebraska's statewide popular vote, Barack Obama won the 2nd Congressional District and earned one of the state's five electoral votes.

HOW IT WORKS

Each state's electors will meet on Dec. 17 in their home states and cast their votes for president and vice president. Congress will meet on Jan. 6, 2013, to conduct an official tally of the electoral votes. Vice President Joe Biden will preside and declare the winner.

PROBLEM AREAS

If no candidate gets at least 270 electoral votes, the election goes to the newly elected House of Representatives. Each state delegation in the House gets one vote, and a candidate must win a majority of the states to be elected president. This happened in 1824, when Andrew Jackson won the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, but four candidates split the electoral votes and no one received a majority. The race went to the House and John Quincy Adams, who came in second, was chosen as president. Three other times, candidates won the Electoral College even though they lost the popular vote — in 1876, 1888 and 2000.

This doesn't answer all the questions, so I'd also suggest going to Wikipedia and reading more as well, and that link is here: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_college

It's good to read and appreciate how our political system works - remembering that our system is actually a Republic for of governement - from the Pledge of Allegence:  "And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation ....."

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Joe Lizura. July 1, 2012

July 1, 2012. Charlie Sheen's new show sets a record!  Check it out, "Anger Management" debuted with an all-time record viewership for a cable comedy series.  Personally I must say, I watched both episodes as it was an "hour show" of two back to back episodes, and I thought it was really good.  Charlie Sheen did a great job, and the writing was very, very good.  Here is a link to the story:  http://tv.yahoo.com/news/-anger-management--scores-biggest-comedy-debut-in-cable-history.html  There seems to be a very good supporting cast as well and with the solid fan base of Charlie Sheen, it looks like the series will be on for a long time to come.  As for 2 1/2 men, I think their days are numbered as Ashton Kutcher probably will not be able to deliver the style of show that the viewers had come to know.  Either way, I wish the best for both shows!

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Here is more from the posted story.
Charlie Sheen's new FX comedy "Anger Management" debuted to huge numbers last night, scoring the biggest scripted comedy debut in cable history. It pulled in 5.47 million total viewers, with 2.65 million of those in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic; that's the biggest series premiere in FX history. And even better news for Sheen and FX: The audience grew as the hour went on, with an audience of 5.74 million viewers tuning in for "Anger's" second half-hour.

Now those numbers are a far cry from Sheen's former show, CBS's "Two and a Half Men," which drew an average of 15 million viewers this past season -- its first with Ashton Kutcher replacing Sheen. But viewers abandoned "Men" as Kutcher's debut season wore on, with only 11.33 million tuning in for May's season finale. And to be fair, "Men" airs on a major network during the prime TV viewing season, while "Anger" debuted on a relatively tiny cable network in the middle of summer.

Joe Lizura Not Guilty verdict for Roger Clemens

Joe Lizura not guilty for Roger Clemens - breaking news.  June 18, 2012.  Finally some good news for Roger Clemens, as the jury just found him Not Guilty on all six charges being brought against  him by the federal government.  After almost 3 million dollars in tax money and 46 witnesses, the verdict came back Not Guilty.  So now the questions are:  How is the government going to repair his image and who is going to pay back the taxpayers for this fiasco?

The reality is both of those questions are rhetorical and nobody pays back the taxpayers and the government just walks away leaving the impression that Roger Clemens used steroids (or at least lied about using them) and the government just did a bad job of losing their case.  At the very least, let's hope the Not Guilty Verdict results in Roger Clemens getting all of his legal bills and expenses paid back.  And as the article here suggests:  http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/roger-clemens-verdict-not-guilty-six-counts-204828190--mlb.html  It will be interesting to see if he gets into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame on the first ballet - let's wait and see.

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Joe Lizura. May 30, 2012.  Married.  That's what I said - Justin Beiber needs to get married already so that girls all around the world can get back to whatever they were doing --I must say that I'm not particularly a Justin Beiber fan, but I do admire the fact that in just a few short years, this talented singer has managed to become a world-wide sensation to a point at which the world hasn't seen since The Beatles roamed the earth!  This story from Norway made me laugh - declaring a "state of emergency"?  Really??   Check this out:  http://www.tmz.com/2012/05/30/justin-bieber-norway-police-state-of-emergency/ .  Think about it, when was the last time entire cities were shut down because of a singer or a band?  Seriously, it's been a long long time! Hmm, come to think of it, maybe Michael Jackson and Madonna did it once or twice.

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The Love of Baseball



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Joe Lizura. San Diego, 5/29/2012.  Here is an interesting article about Barry Bonds wanting to move forward after the years of testimony and trials regarding any association he had with steroids while in baseball. His hearings and trials have been going on for so long, that I really felt he deserves to move ahead with his life.  In fact, I feel like all these guys have been through enough including the latest casualty, Roger Clemens who has spent untold weeks and months in the middle of hearings and testimony.  I was never a Giants fan, but his story made me want to support him - check it out, here is the link: http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-barry-bonds-giants-20120529,0,7072284.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29  And now here are my thoughts about the whole "steroids and baseball" controversy now fully a decade old - baseball in America is an interesting thing because it is more than a sport, (basketball is a sport) baseball is both a sport and past-time.  Baseball has outlasted fortune 500 companies, times of prosperity and times of war.  Baseball has been a sport that teaches children to work as a team, to invest hard work and to both win and lose.  Right now however, we as a nation are losing.  Picking on the game of baseball by lawyers, politicians and advocates is ruining the game, ruining the respect and reputation of players and wasting untold millions and millions of taxpayer dollars. 



Barry Bonds

 Baseball isn't perfect, and neither are the politicians on the panels investing the game, I personally am tired of having my tax dollars wasted trying to trick ballplayers into "obstruction of justice" charges by having them deny use of steroids and then have someone else testify that they used them - this has gone on and on for years and it's pointless.

So here is what I think would be an excelled move:  The president should pick a day, say July 1, 2012 and pardon all ballplayers prior to that date for any association with steroids or steroid use.  The very next day a very powerful law should go into effect that makes it illegal to use any steroid in baseball - simple as that, if you are caught using steroids, you are suspended for the rest of the current season and if you are caught a second time, you are banned from the sport.

Let's stop bashing the game and the players, and let's stop wasting our money.  Just my thoughts.

Joe Lizura

Joe-Lizura_The Worst Traffic in America

Joe Lizura. 5/25/2012.  Yikes!  The list is out for cities with the worst traffic and I'm proud to say that San Diego is NOT on the list!  But I'm NOT proud to say that I've sat in more than one of the traffic jams.  The top 5 cities are:  Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Bridgeport (see entire list here: http://autos.yahoo.com/news/the-worst-traffic-in-america--it-s-not-los-angeles.html ).  What's interesting though is that I've sat in traffic jams in both the east coast and the west coast, and it never seemed to me that the west coast traffic jams were ever as bad as the east coast ones.  Regardless, books on CD make any traffic jam much more enjoyable!

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May 24, 2012. Joe Lizura. What a fantastic finish to an amazing American Idol season.  It's been awhile since American Idol such high ratings and was watched and voted-on by so many viewers - very impressive!  It's also impressive how many Google.com searches there were for both Phillip and Jessica.  And if tradition holds true, they will both be very successful in their singing careers.  Being from San Diego I naturally hoped for Jessica to prevail, but she'll do just fine with a very long and successful career in the music industry, especially with the help of the folks from American Idol.  Good luck Phillip and Jessica!  Here is the American Idol wrap up:  http://tv.msn.com/last-night-on-tv/?from=en-us_msnhp

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Joe Lizura.  May 18, 2012.  Look Who's Making The Money.  Nice story today about who's making the most money in America - and despite stories about CEOs making a boat-load of money, it's actually the medical folks pulling in the big bucks.  Check out the story - time for a career change!  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-best--and-worst-paying-jobs-in-america.html

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Joe Lizura. May 16, 2012.  This story really "Chaps My Hide" as they say.  Why are we paying $4.29 per gallon of gas when oil is at a 6 month low and inventories are at a 22 year high?!  What should the price of a gallon of gas really be? Try about $3.50 a gallon in the more expensive states like California, and $2.75 in the less expensive states like Arizona and Texas - this my friends is what people care about in election years.  Read for yourself about the status of oil:  http://news.yahoo.com/oil-falls-6-month-low-below-93-us-043211022--finance.html

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What an inspirational story!

Joe Lizura.  May 14, 2012.  I just saw this story and I had to share it!  Click this link and read what makes the United States of America the beacon of light for people around the world, and how a small boy made it here and is still so very grateful.  Here's the story:  http://news.yahoo.com/coast-guard-grad-rescued-sea-boy-162002706.html
Share it with a friend.

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Tips to Better Networking

Joe Lizura. May 10, 2012.  Here is a nice article that should help you with networking.  Just remember that a good networking strategy will only work if you remember to "follow-up" after you make your connections.  Here are 7 key tips from an Entrepreneur Magazine article, including the important tip about arriving to your event early:  http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/networking-tips-that-really-work.html

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The passing of Vidal Sassoon

Joe Lizura. May 9, 2012.  I was saddened today to learn of the passing of Vidal Sassoon - he truly began a revolution in the Hair industry that took America and much of Europe into a wonderful phase of hair styling.  Only those who are a bit older can remember just how aweful hairstyles were before Vidal revolutionized the way they were cut.  I remember my mother and my older sister spending countless hours under the hairdresser before "seeing the light" of shorter and trendier hair - I even remember my sister's first "pixie haircut" (Yikes!)  But most of all I remember the commercials which sang ... "If you don't look good - we don't look good . . Vidal Sassoon"  Umm yeah, you might want to youtube search that one.  RIP.  Here is a link to a brief bio of his life:  http://shine.yahoo.com/beauty/vidal-sasson-legendary-hairstylist-dies-84-205900070.html

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The Kentucky Derby

Joe Lizura. May 5, 2012.  Today was Kentucky Derby Day!  I love the Kentucky Derby, because you never know what will happen, and today was no exception.  If you don't know how it ended, check out this story:  http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ill-another-wins-kentucky-derby-224922046--rah.html What a great race it was as a new horse racing star was born!




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May 3, 2012.  Joe Lizura.  Get ready for the brightest moon of the year!  During the next few days, you won't be able to miss it (unless it's cloudy), because the night sky will be bright enough to create shadows.  It only happens once or twice a year, when the full moon is extremely bright, but it will actually be bright enough to create shadows on the ground - normally this would be great news, but there is also a meteor shower this weekend, and because the moon will be so bright, it's likely that there won't really be a chance to actually see the meteors.  You can read all about both the full moon and the meteor shower here:  http://news.yahoo.com/supermoon-may-outshine-meteor-shower-weekend-201132286.html

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Flying with a home-made jetpack

May 3 2012.  Joe Lizura. Boy, I sure could have used one of these today when I was stuck in traffic for hours and hours and hours and ......  Check out the story it's awesome!  http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/watch-man-fly-across-rio-janeiro-using-jet-011336450.html

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A truly sad loss

May 3 2012.  Joe Lizura.  I've spent a lot of time yesterday and today thinking about Junior Seau and wish his family strength and understanding in this difficult time.  Having been a weatherman in San Diego for a great number of years, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jr. and covering some of the wonderful things he did in our community over the years.  His rise in the Chargers's organization was an especially wonderful thing to watch, his command of the game of football was amazing and every time the camera had a close-up of Jr. you could see the determination in his eyes.  He lived life that way as well, he was determined to help the city and the community he grew up in, and gave so much back to San Diego through his good deeds and his foundation.  Every elementary school kid who loves football should do a report on Junior Seau so they can appreciate what it's like when a player does everything right on the field and off the field. 

I'll never judge Junior for his final months, weeks and days, and wouldn't judge him because, although we never saw it on the outside, there must have been some unbelievable stress going on in the inside.  Folks in San Diego and all around the country will miss him.  R.I.P.

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Best wishs for Tyler Perry

May 2, 2012.  Joe Lizura.  I just heard about the big fire at Tyler Perry's production facility in Atlanta, and I thought I'd send out my best wishes - I know how hard he's worked to build that 30 acre studio lot.  Good luck Tyler - rebuilding is not easy, but you can do it!  Here is a link to the story:  http://www.examiner.com/article/tyler-perry-s-atlanta-studio-ablaze

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Joe Lizura

 April 27, 2012.  The newly revised http://www.joelizura.com/ website.  I don't usually write about my own website, because I've sort-of felt that my blog is the place to comment on those news stories that are either interesting or fun, but today I decided to talk about the Joe Lizura website.  I've been working on it for the last few days by adding photos from my last 22 years here in San Diego.  I'm quite certain that if you live in San Diego that there is a chance that you might be in one of the photos.

In particular, I would love to know the names of the gentlemen in the photo of me doing a live-shot at the KGB skyshow preparation back in 1990 - there are photos of me doing some live shots at the very first "Bikes for Kids" give-a-way from 1993, when the Salvation Army, Myself, and KNSD created a program to reward outstanding elementary shool children with brand new bikes for going above and beyond their capabilities.  At any rate, these are some of my favorite "Joe Lizura Photos" and I thought you'd like to see a few of them.  Be sure to visit the website and then click on the Joe Lizura Photo Gallery!

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