
Our behavior here in the valley feels untenable and self-destructive
EVERY Saturday in late December and January, as reports of brutal temperatures and historic snowfalls streamed in from family in Vermont, New York and even southern Louisiana, we made weekly pilgrimages to our local beer garden to enjoy craft brews and unseasonably warm afternoons.
Normal winters here in Fresno, in the heart of California’s Central Valley, bring average highs in the 50s, steady periods of rain and drizzle, and the dense, bone-chilling Tule fog that can blanket the valley for days and even weeks on end.
But not this year. Instead, early 2014 gave us cloudless skies and midday temperatures in the 70s. By the end of January, it seemed like April, with spring trees in full bloom.
We fretted over the anomalous weather, to be sure. A high-pressure system parked off the Alaskan coast had produced not just our high temperatures but also soaring levels of fine particulate matter in the air and more than 50 rainless days, worsening a three-year drought, the most severe in half a millennium. If it’s this bad in January, we wondered, what’s it going to be like in July? But then we’d return to the beer taps, or meander over to peruse food truck menus.
Life in the Central Valley revolves around two intricately related concerns: the quality of the air and the quantity of the water. Although Fresno is the state’s fifth-largest city, it is really just a sprawling farm town in the middle of the nation’s most productive agricultural region, often called “America’s fruit basket.” Surrounded by mountains, which trap the pollution created by a surging population, interstate transportation and tens of thousands of farms, the valley has noxious air, even on good days.
The political atmosphere surrounding crop irrigation is equally toxic. Some farms in the western Valley — crippled by cuts in water allocations, salt buildup in the soil and depleted aquifers — now resemble the dust bowl that drove so many Tom Joads here in the 1930s. Farmers line highways with signs insisting that “food grows where water flows,” while environmentalists counter that the agriculture industry consumes 75 percent of the water transported by California’s byzantine water system.
The Latest on: California Central Valley
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The Latest on: California Central Valley
- Ninth Circuit won’t rehear delta smelt defenders’ challenge to Central Valley Project water contractson August 1, 2024 at 3:16 pm
(CN) — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday said it won't rehear a challenge to long-term water contracts with California's Central Valley Project brought by a group of environmental ...
- Inside Central California's new Latino political movementon August 1, 2024 at 9:51 am
A newly awakened and fiercely independent Latino political movement is taking shape in Central California.Why it matters: The Central California Valley — where Cesar Chavez once launched the Delano ...
- California Festivalgoers Hospitalized with Fungal Valley Feveron August 1, 2024 at 2:24 am
Valley fever, also known as coccidioidomycosis, is an infectious disease of the respiratory system caused by the Coccidioides fungus. Five festivalgoers in total were diagnosed wi ...
- Cases of potentially deadly Valley fever emerge after California music festivalon July 31, 2024 at 1:29 pm
The California Department of Public Health is warning attendees of a local music festival that cases of the potentially deadly Valley fever spread among people who were at the event.
- Multiple People Hospitalized With ‘Valley Fever’ After California EDM Festival Fungus Outbreakon July 31, 2024 at 10:35 am
The Lightning in a Bottle EDM festival at Buena Vista Lake near Bakersfield, California brought some of the EDM industry's biggest acts out including ...
- Fungal disease sickened 5 at California festival, officials say. What is Valley fever?on July 31, 2024 at 8:02 am
After the event, five festivalgoers came down with Valley fever, California health officials said in a July 29 news release. Valley fever is an infectious disease caused by Coccidioides fungus, an ...
- Wrong-way crash in San Luis Obispo County kills 3 from the Central Valleyon July 31, 2024 at 7:25 am
Three people from the Central Valley were killed in a 3-vehicle crash Sunday night in San Luis Obispo County.CHP says a Paso Robles woman in a Mercedes was trav ...
- Multiple attendees of California music festival hospitalized with valley feveron July 30, 2024 at 5:08 pm
Several Lightning in a Bottle attendees have been hospitalized due to valley fever infections, the California Department of Public Health said.
- Central Valley non-profits receive grants from Bank of The Sierraon July 30, 2024 at 4:01 pm
Some Fresno, Tulare, and Kings counties non-profits are part of the list of recipients for a total of $150,000 of grants awarded by Bank of the Sierra to ...
- Road closures continue in Central Valley for high-speed rail projecton July 29, 2024 at 7:42 pm
More road closures and traffic impacts are coming to the Central Valley, as construction crews work to complete the nation’s first high-speed rail system. This month, the California High-Speed Rail ...
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