More Bad News On The California Drought

San Francisco broke an unfortunate record last month:

In another sign California's persistent drought, downtown San Francisco recorded no measurable rain in January for the first time in 165 years.

The National Weather Service also said Santa Cruz recorded no rain in January for the first time since 1893. Normal rainfall for that city in January is more than 6 inches.

For the Bay Area as a whole, last month was the driest January on record, the weather service said.

The severe drought isn't exclusive to San Francisco. The state as a whole is in trouble:

Statewide, the water trapped in the form of snow is just a quarter of the amount usually found at this time of year, California's Department of Water Resources reported shortly after teams returned from measuring snow levels at Echo Summit in the Sierra Nevada mountains, southwest of Lake Tahoe. (Watch a video about new technology California is using to measure its mountain snowpack.)

Mountain snows provide, on average, nearly a third of California's water, with January typically the state's wettest month.

The snowpack runoff is critical to California's water supply and those reservoirs are exceptionally low:

That release process helps keep man-made reservoirs filled during the hottest time of the year. Those reservoirs are already running well below their historic levels for this time of year. Shasta Lake, the state's largest reservoir, is at 66 percent of normal. Lake Oroville, the second largest, is at 62 percent.

The drought is affecting energy production:

With less water being available to generate hydroelectricity, natural gas and renewable energy supplies will be used to make up the difference. Given that hydropower is one of the least expensive types of energy and has zero emissions, other types of energy used to make up the difference will have additional costs and emissions. Natural gas is more expensive and produces greenhouse gas emissions.

And wildfires:

Drier conditions are also priming California's forests for larger and more frequent fires, especially along the fringes of urban areas, where more people are coming to the forests for recreation, according to Alicia Kinoshita, a professor at San Diego State University. Visitors to the forest may smoke, or make bonfires.

Aside from the direct dangers fires pose to the people and property in their paths, they also set the stage for compounding hazards in the future, including landslides, floods and poor water quality, scientists say.

And agriculture:

- Direct costs to agriculture total $1.5 billion (revenue losses of $1 billion and $0.5 billion in additional pumping costs). This net revenue loss is about 3 percent of the state’s total agricultural value.

- The total statewide economic cost of the 2014 drought is $2.2 billion.

- The loss of 17,100 seasonal and part-time jobs related to agriculture represents 3.8 percent of farm unemployment.

- 428,000 acres, or 5 percent, of irrigated cropland is going out of production in the Central Valley, Central Coast and Southern California due to the drought.

- The Central Valley is hardest hit, particularly the Tulare Basin, with projected losses of $800 million in crop revenue and $447 million in additional well-pumping costs.

- Overdraft of groundwater is expected to cause additional wells in the Tulare Basin to run dry if the drought continues.

- Agriculture on the Central Coast and in Southern California will be less affected by this year’s drought, with about 19,150 acres fallowed, $10 million in lost crop revenue and $6.3 million in additional pumping costs.

- Statewide dairy and livestock losses from reduced pasture and higher hay and silage costs represent $203 million in revenue losses.

- The drought is likely to continue through 2015, regardless of El Niño conditions.

- Consumer food prices will be largely unaffected. Higher prices at the grocery store of high-value California crops like nuts, wine grapes and dairy foods are driven more by market demand than by the drought.

And last, but certainly not least, safe drinking water:

As temperatures rise and precipitation decreases, water quality can be jeopardized. Shrinking amounts of water can concentrate contaminants such as heavy metals, industrial chemicals and pesticides, and sediments and salts. During drought, drinking water supplies are susceptible to harmful algal blooms and other microorganisms.