Safe and warm in LASTILLNESS pervades the South Los Angeles Wetland Park. A turtle floats by, undisturbed by lunch hour at the high school opposite. Tall bulrushes bend around the pool at the centre of the nine-acre (3.6 hectare) site. The water comes from the city’s storm drains, cleaned of oil and rubbish. Completed in 2012 for $26m, the park captures urban run-off after wet weather—vital in a state suffering from severe drought. Water from rain in recent weeks, brought largely by El Niño, the world’s largest climatic phenomenon, now flows through the park’s fountains. More will come.
El Niño sees warm water, collected over several years in the western tropical Pacific, slosh back eastwards after the weakening, or reversal, of winds that blew it there. This affects atmospheric cycles, and therefore weather patterns, around the world. The current Niño is one of the strongest on record; its rivals in 1982-83 and 1997-98 ushered in two of California’s wettest years after storms between January and March.
In the first week of this year more than 100mm of rain fell near Lake Tahoe; snow turned the Golden...Continue reading
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