'Water war' persists between Brazil's two largest cities
Despite some much-needed rains in recent days, Brazil's Jaguari reservoir, which supplies water to the nation's two biggest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, has fallen to its lowest level ever. Measure-ment posts have been laid bare and jut out from exposed earth "like a line of dominoes."
Sao Paulo state leaders want to tap more water from Jaguari, which is Rio's main source of water. This has led to a major conflict between the two cities. Rio says, "NO MORE WATER!"
While Rio has thus far remained only slightly affected by the parching drought, which has damaged coffee, citrus, sugar and other crops, the residents of Sao Paulo have been without water "at least once every 30 days or so."
Even so, Sao Paulo has resisted water restrictions for the most part like much of California in the U.S. has enforced in recent months. Restaurants serve water unless asked not to by their customers. Homeowners can still, unlike in California, water their lawns whenever they like.
Around Sao Paulo's main financial district, it's common to see shop owners hosing down sidewalks. Vehicles regularly line up for spots in car washes.
Even though it's "rained sporadically" during late November and the first half of December in the Sao Paulo area, as soon as the rains stop, the Jaguari reservoir begins to fall again as much of the moisture seeps into the cracked earth. This is very similar to what happens in the parched central valleys of California following a storm system.
Water officials in Sao Paulo are predicting that the city's water situation will "improve greatly" as the annual rainy season, which runs from late October until mid April, just like California, picks up steam. They don't foresee having to resort to strict water rationing if the rains persist during the next several months. But, as usual, only time will tell, especially in a normally drier 'El Nino' cycle in east-central Brazil.
NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS
While the El Nino-enhanced 'Pineapple Connection' from Hawaii continued to soak much of California on Friday with upwards of 8 inches of rain in places and widespread lowland flooding, we've enjoyed 50-degree high temperatures and scattered rain showers locally in North Idaho the past few days. Snow levels have been above 4,000 feet in the nearby mountain ski areas.
We've escaped the high winds that have damaged the coastal regions from Washington into California. Wind gusts on Thursday in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Lake Tahoe approached 140 miles per hour through the passes. Many homes in both Reno and Lake Tahoe reported "significant damage" from the hurricane-force winds.
Thus far this mild December, again thanks to the warm El Nino in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, we've only had barely an inch of rain and a near-record low 0.8 inches of snow in town. The combined November/December snowfall in Coeur d'Alene as of 10 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 12, stood at a puny two inches, more than a 'foot' below normal for the 2014-15 snowfall season to date.
Longer term, while we do see a bit cooler temperatures and some scattered light flurries at times in the next 10 days, things don't look too promising as of this writing for a beautiful WHITE CHRISTMAS across the lower elevations of North Idaho and eastern Washington.
We only need an inch of the white stuff on the ground locally in town on Dec, 25 to qualify for a White Christmas. But, I would put the chances still at a bit less than 50/50 for such a 'CAMELOT-LIKE' occurrence.
Remember, though, it's a 'long-shot' at best, but the extended outlook weatherwise does call for a 'trough' of low pressure moving in from the Gulf of Alaska between Dec. 22 and Dec. 26. Pray for SNOW below 2,500 feet and heavier accumulations in the nearby mountains for the skiers and snowboarders.
El Nino is great for warmth, but lousy for snow across the Inland Northwest.
Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com