The California Drought with an I-5 Perspective

I was driving I-5 South yesterday near Tracy when I took some shots from a camera mounted on the dash. I do this from time to time, always keeping my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road. Most shots taken at 70 mph are out of focus, but occasionally I get one.  The weather is front and center these days, given that we are in the midst of a severe drought threatening crop production for much of the country. It rained this past weekend, and the clouds looked like they might open up with more moisture, but they didn’t.

I parked at “Vista Point” to take a shot of the traffic cutting through our nation’s richest ag land. The water in the left background is the California Aqueduct. Food prices hinge on this area surviving the drought. We need rain and snow.

I read in the Sunday (2/9/2014)NY Times about how snow is disappearing. The author of this opinion piece, Porter Fox, cites research by climatologist Daniel Scott who surmises that only six of the 19 venues that have hosted the Winter Olympic would  have enough snow for skiing events by the end of this century. This grim scenario was on my mind while making the trip through California’s crop heartland.