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WOW! Not even the big-frame computer models, space satellites, or our Nation’s finest meteorologists predicted that California would be catapulted out of EXTREME DROUGHT and into multiple flash flood warnings from repeated Atmospheric Rivers this winter! Even with the collapsing roofs, flash floods, snow-imprisoned households, and mud-filled highways, it’s hard to believe that the National Drought Mitigation Center as of Tuesday, March 7, 2023 (see droughtmonitor.unl.edu)

STILL claims 43.06% of the state remains categorized as being in moderate-to-severe drought! THAT is how DRY California had become! In October of 2022, NOAA predicted the Pacific Northwest would experience wetter-than-average conditions, with drier-than-average conditions for California, the southwest, the southern Rockies, and the southern Plains. What would we have done if that proved true? I guess the winter weather’s prediction, the “Omniscient Man’s” theory, got shot in the foot! I certainly have a compassionate heart for those suffering tragedies ranging from major home damage to the loss of life itself. I know many reading this may be groaning, “enough is enough,” however, how much of the water damage suffered was manifested by poor management of the forest floors and the absence of new and reinforced water basins and levees to take advantage of this unique winter? The destructive flooding of farmworkers’ homes in Planada might have been averted if the pleas of local resident, Skip Johnson, who asked to repair a washed-out area of Bear Creek 6 years ago, had been addressed (Merced County Times, January 19, 2023, 4 days after the levee break). The 2030 Merced County General Plan (see Flood Management, pages 13-9 and 13-10) also discusses enlargement of the Bear Creek Reservoir plus 33 miles of channel improvement which await a new analysis for environmental compliance. Maybe we should insist that Sacramento invest more in our outdated water management infrastructure instead of shaking our fist at the heavens!

HOLD THE WATER! With this tremendous rainfall and levees broken all over our farmlands, the immediate concern is saturated orchard soils and their effect on pistachio roots. It’s no secret that pistachio rootstocks do not fare well under low oxygen conditions. Unfortunately, we have not quantified the effect of oxygen deficits and their duration on pistachio root health. We do know that as long as the weather stays cool, time is on our side for the soil to drain sufficiently to re-oxygenate before bud break. Obviously, uniform, lighter textured soils drain and recover much faster than clay-loam soils, especially those dominated by sodium, which