Sunday, July 26, 2015

How dry I am

Beauty shot of Lake Nacimiento.

Lake Nacimiento is but a shadow of its former self. After three years of the much ballyhooed drought California it has become a forlorn symbol of the disappearing surface water that plagues the Golden State. Today the lake holds 24% of its deemed capacity, a paltry 90,313 acre feet of the robust 376,304 acre feet it once held. The shrinking lake looks like a bathtub with more and more rings being added with each passing month.

To my untrained eye the lake has fallen nearly 100 feet in depth and has withdrawn from its former shoreline by hundreds of feet. Herein are images to justify my estimates.

Look like a hundred feet to me.

The boat launch from the ever receding shoreline. Note the erstwhile floating docks left and right.

New water line.

From the new water line to the shore that once was.

This one adds no new information but the two women lend poignancy to the tan tableau

Yup. That's somebody's boat dock dangling above the shrinking lake


Locals have all their digits crossed that the El NiƱo winter happens as forecast. More to come from the tinder dry central valley.

1 comment:

Blacks Crossing said...

These photographs and the situation warrant a huge gasp and serious thought. The collective "we" need to do some serious thinking about life on our tender Planet Earth and ways to prevent such disasters from becoming the new normal. Thanks for bringing this to the fore. It is not a problem exclusive to California. However, the Golden State is our nation's breadbasket and this is a wakeup call.