What Are The Potential Impacts For Californias Water?
Over the past 150 years, monitored mountain glaciers have been shrinking. If glaciers continue to shrink, summer water flows will drop sharply, disrupting a source of water for irrigation and power in many areas that rely on mountain watersheds. This in turn will likely lead to more flooding during the winter and worsen drought conditions. In California’s Central Valley, for example, melting snow provides much of the summer water supply; warmer temperatures would cause the snow to melt earlier and thus reduce summer supplies even if rainfall increased during the spring. Instead of increasing the amount of water supply available, the disrupted cycle is likely to cause excess rainfall and run-off, thus causing flooding and overflow of reservoirs which are not equipped to contain such large inflows of water. The shortage of water in the summer due to runoff changes could worsen drought and increase diversions of rivers in California. This would mean higher cost and further adverse effects
