First cloud-free #Sentinel2 satellite images in a month dropped yesterday. Great to check out snow levels, reservoirs, and wet wet wet in the Butte Basin/Lower Sacramento River. First image compares Colusa area now vs 12/15/2022. #Geography#RemoteSensing#CaWx#CaStorm 1/x
Imagery paints a picture of soil types. Along the River, coarser soils settle quickly once floodwaters slow down. Blue areas have more clay, because super-fine soil particles can stay suspended longer, travel farther in slow-moving floodwaters. Orchards prefer coarse soils. 2/x
Plumes of sediment from the Pajaro and Salinas Rivers are still very visible in the Monterey Bay on 1/19/2023. Two visualizations of sediment in the lower Delta and San Pablo Bay. 3/x
This image shows rice fields in the Northern Sacramento Valley (blue areas). Similarly to the Butte Basin, rice lands in Yuba County (lower-left) are in the longterm floodplain of the Feather and Yuba Rivers while orchards predominate in coarse soils along the Feather River. 4/x
The 'tailwater' from rice on the west side of the Sac Valley (south of about Willows) eventually ends up in the main 'Westside Drain' which dumps back into the Sac River around Knights Landing. This foaming brew flows into the Delta and we pump it south for people to drink. 6/x
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There is an interesting story to tell about land conservation, forestry, global carbon markets, and lands threatened by tonight's growth on the #ShellyFire, (captured by @ALERTCalifornia . 23:00 - 7/6/24) 1/x
The #ShellyFire is pushing east out of the Marble Mountains into a large tract of private timberland owned by @EFMInvest - a 'Climate Smart' private equity management group (subsidiary of Ecotrust) (purple on the map). Previously the land was held by an Investment company called Timbervest. 2/x
EFM has sold 'carbon credits' on this land. They are able to do this because they claiming that by not logging it, it will grow and store a lot more carbon than it would if it were logged (they can sell the 'additionality'). 3/x acr2.apx.com/mymodule/Proje…
Just got some remarkable video from toe of the landslide caused by PG&E's Butte Creek Canal collapse last week. Thousands of yards of dirt and rock dammed up Butte Creek. This entire gravel bar is new. Sediment threatens endangered salmon which begin spawning in next 60 days. /1
The landslide went all the way across the creek and created a dam which backed up the creek. When it overtopped, it lead to the initial huge pulse of orange sediment seen downstream the next morning. /2
It's important to point out this is not the first time this has happened. LiDAR terrain maps show this has happened over a dozen times since the flume was built during the gold rush. The canal is deteriorating, and poses a continued liability to the survival of the salmon run. /3
So #wildfire season is finally starting to take off in Northern California. Here is a thread on why it has taken this long, and what it takes for us to have large fires in California: #CaFires #CaWx #WildlandFirefighting 1/
California has so many fire suppression resources it is hard for fires to escape initial attack unless at least one of these criteria is met:
Multiple starts across a wide area
Above average winds
Topographic alignment
Extreme temperatures
Poor visibility for aircraft 2/
Massive airpower for firefighting in Ca. means an individual fire can have half a dozen air tankers on it within the first hour. There are heavy helicopters stationed all over the state, too, and these are extremely effective on initial attack if they can refill nearby. 3/
The large #wildfires in #Chile are spreading quickly across large areas of non-native plantations of radiata pine and eucalyptus, many of them planted by foreigners during a dictatorship. These maps show recent MODIS heat detections on top of mapping of plantations (purple). 1/x
Over 3 million acres of plantations were established in this region in the 80s and 90s. As seen in the American West, during severe weather, conifer tree farms burn like the sun. Even-aged forestry is turning out to be an ecological disaster, all over the globe. 2/x
The @FSC_IC has certified over 3M acres of Chilean plantations as being 'sustainably managed'. But as in the USA, they failed to imagine the potential scale of wildfire losses in managed forests. Wildfire is a structural problem in tree farms, not easily mitigated. 3/x
It's been two years since the #campfire burned here in Butte County. This thread is a narrative about the fire with satellite images I created of the fire at the peak of it's rampage, and aerial photos we flew. This image shows the long-range spotting which spread the fire. 1/x
The fire started in the Feather River Canyon, near Pulga, and raced up Flea Valley Creek. Once the fire reached the rim of the Canyon, it rained embers all over the Concow Basin. It raced thru heavy fuels in the Concow area, which still had tall dead brush from fires in 2008. 2/x
By the time the leapt across the West Branch Feather River, it was nearly 5 miles wide. Every bright yellow dot in this image is a burning structure. This view looks North. Fire spread from right to left. 3/x #WUI#planning#paradiseca