California Climate Q&A
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Dec 6, 2023
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California Climate PowerPoint Questions
Directions:
Answer the following questions from the California Climate PowerPoint. Be sure to write your answers on the line beneath the question and then highlight, color or underline your answers. 1. What is the difference between climate and weather? Hint: you know what weather is so how does climate get defined?
Climate describes long term weather conditions, while weather is short term conditions (rain, snow)
2. Why is a Mediterranean climate considered ideal?
Because it produces benign weather (dry, warmer summers and cooler wetter winters)
3. What is the average range fall for the Inland Empire including Chaffey?
about 14 in a year
4. A Mediterranean climate is rather benign. But what two weather patterns can be disruptive?
flood and drought
5. What side of continents do Mediterranean climates occur on? Choose east or west. East
6. The subtropical ridge out in the Pacific Ocean that determines our precipitation moves between northern California and Baja. It’s summer and dry so where is that ridge parked now – northern California or Baja? Northern California
7. According to the map on slide #5, which two years were flood years in southern California?
1937-1938
8. How can past floods be determined from the geologic record?
They can be determined by using sediment cores
9. Why are the sediments in the Santa Barbara basin undisturbed?
It has anoxic water, water with no oxygen near the bottom because the water circulation is so restricted, nothing can disturb the sediments.
10. Which layers in the sediment core in slide #7 show signs of a flood?
The thicker gray layers
11. According to the sediment cores, how often do major floods occur in southern California?
about every 200 years
12. Other than layers of silt, what other things in the sediment core can be studied to understand ancient climates? Name 2. seawater temperatures and age of the sediment layers
13. What winter had the largest flooding in California as recorded in the written record? The winter of 1861-1862
14. How can warm rain greatly increase flooding in the mountains during the winter?
it melted the snow on the mountains and produced way more water
15. Los Angeles receives about 14in/yr of rain. How much did they receive in 1861-62?
66 inches 16. In 1861-62, what area of California according to the map on slide #8 experienced the most flooding?
Central Valley
17. What was the largest town east of Los Angeles in 1855?
Agua Mansa
18. According to the 1855 map on slide #9, what was the name used for today’s San Gabriel mountains?
El Monte
19. The map shown on slide #9 is the original survey map for southern California. Looking to the far right hand side of the map, what is the name given for the horizontal line? Hint: it is a major east west route from San Bernardino to Claremont. Baseline
20. Why were the original residents of Agua Mansa familiar with California’s farming requirements?
They had their own experienced farmers and agricultural traditions.
21. What crucial thing limited the development of southern California in the 1800s?
Water
22. Why didn’t the farmers return to Agua Mansa after the Great Flood?
Because there was massive flooding that covered the town in silt and sand and the people lost their homes and their fields.
23. What caused the flood waters to be trapped within the city of Sacramento for weeks?
The river topped the levees which trapped the water
24. According to the map on slide #12, what was the greatest depth of the flood waters in the central valley? 20 feet
25. How deep does the water appear to be on the city streets on slide #13? It appears to be about 6 feet
26. Looking at slide #14 especially into the distance, why did so many people, livestock and wild animals lose their lives?
The water was too much and destroyed most, if not all, homes and flooded fields for a long time. People and animals that can’t swim or don’t have access to food or shelter lose their lives.
27. How did the city of Sacramento solve the problem of future flooding?
By making the second floors of brick buildings into street level floors, which was done by adding dirt and repaving the streets to reach the second floor, and other buildings were jacked up off the ground and then backfilled with dirt.
28. What is slide #16 depicting?
It shows another view of a pre-1862 street level
29. Why do atmospheric rivers produce warmer rains (which forces the snow level to rise to higher elevations too)?
It is a narrow band of warm air that holds the most water.
30. Why does a stationary atmospheric river only produce flooding in a limited geographic area? because all the rainfall is going to that area specifically
31. Does California get atmospheric rivers every year?
Yes, 30-50% of the rain in CA comes from them
32. According to the map on slide #17, what other state gets hammered by atmospheric rivers?
Hawaii
33. Why do the mountains get more rain than the lowlands according to slide #18?
When the vapor rises over the mountain it is met with much colder air so it leads to more heavy rain or snow
34. Why is the Santa Ana River’s history of flooding so important for southern California?
Because its history can tell us when to expect flooding.
35. What two years were the worst for flooding in southern California during the 1900s?
1910 and 1916
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36. What unit is cfs an abbreviation for? Look on the left hand side of the graph on slide #20.
Cubic feet
37. Looking at the graph on slide #20, what were the 2 largest flood years?
1862 and 1867
38. What is the average discharge for the Santa Ana River below the Prado Dam?
224 cubic feet
39. What happened to Orange County in the 1938 flood?
Almost 70% of OC was flooded
40. What does the term “a one hundred year flood” mean?
A flood with less than 1% chance of likelihood
41. What did the government do after the 1938 floods to the natural waterways in southern California?
They engineered them with dams, levees, basins, etc.
42. What causes streams to develop a braided pattern as seen in slide #22?
A heavy sediment load in the water blocks stream paths and the stream becomes “braided”
43. What do our mountain streams carry in addition to water during big floods?
sediment
44. What did the 1938 flood to put an end to in Mt. Baldy canyon?
The village of Mt Baldy and vacationing residents
45. In slide #23, what other animal is visible in addition to the dog?
a deer
46. What allows Mt. Baldy’s creek to carry such heavy boulders downstream?
The power of the stream coming from a steep drop in elevation
47. How did the bridge get the name “Bridge to Nowhere”?
It was a highway under construction and the storm wiped out the roadway which created the bridge
48. Chaffey College didn’t get flooded during the 1969 storms. But why might it get flooded if a similar event struck again?
Because a developer removed the levee that prevented the original flood to build homes in the 1990’s
49. In slide #25, how does Foothill and Vineyard look different in 1969 compared to today?
There's a lot of greenery and almost no road construction. Foothill and Vineyard is now covered in buildings, franchises and homes.
50. What are the 2 flood protections that most streams coming out of the San Gabriel mountains have today according to slide #26?
Debris basin and concrete lined channels
51. On slide #26, the Seven Oaks dam is less than one mile from the San Andreas fault. So what type of construction did they use – concrete or earthen dam?
concrete
52. On slide #27, the graph depicts 1,200 years of history. How would you characterize the climate of the first 600 years compared to the climate of the last 600 years leading up to today?
The first 600 years were drier with small periods or wet climate, the last 600 years leading up to today have been much wetter 53. How long did each mega-drought last?
240 years and 180 years
54. Why were trees growing in the stream bed back in the years 1130 and 1340 as seen in slide #28?
Because the stream bed was dry, they grew during a mega-drought
55. What provides an older record of climate change – tree rings or sediment cores?
Tree rings
56. What university has the largest tree ring lab in the world?
University of Arizona
57. How far back does the continuous tree ring record date?
goes back 10,000 years
58. What type of weather does a very wide band in the tree ring record for a given year?
(mega) drought
59. According to slide #30, what was the predominant weather pattern in California between 2000 and 2020?
Remarkably dry
60. What are the names of the 2 long term weather patterns that meteorologists study to predict upcoming rain patterns according to slide #31?
The Pacific Decadal Oscillation and El Niño Southern Oscillation
61. What new factor do scientists have to take into account when trying to predict future weather patterns for California according to slide #32?
the causes of present weather patterns
62. Before 1950, what was the highest CO
2
level in the past 800,000 years? 300
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