"Big F*&ing Deal" says Anthony Watts to the record dry in California

Weather Whiplash - California driest on record, other states wettest on record

I found this on twitter - the source of information, protests at information and disinformation.

California is having its driest year in 119, so far. WI, MI, IO, IL having wettest. http://t.co/cDd2myADpW. Weather whiplash. #Climate
— Peter Gleick (@PeterGleick) July 15, 2013

Big F*&ing Deal says Anthony Watts

Anthony doesn't care about a record drought in California and tweets Big F*&ing Deal -"it's happened before - one thousand, one hundred years ago"!

BFD, about 1,100 years ago, what is now California baked in two droughts, the first lasting 220 years and the second 140 years.

Right! Similar could be said if a pandemic wiped out 1.4 billion people or 20% of the world's population - it's happened before, BFD!

A few people pointed out that record dry and record wet is a BFD this time around.  Apart from the fact that it's affecting millions of people who are alive now, in AnthonyWatts' own home state, here are some reasons why a record dry is a BFD for California:

• California population: 38 million
• California GDP: approx. $1.95 trillion
• Number of farms in California: approx 82,000 employing approx 36% of farm workers in the USA.

Not to mention all the water required to generate the power to all those farms, homes, factories and services supporting those 38 million residents, as well as the millions of people who rely on food and other goods exported from California.

Dr Gleick says California has water in storage, but drought is still a concern.

Finally Anthony backs off, tweeting that yes, it is a big deal but he angrily protests at the term "weather whiplash" to describe record wet on one side and record dry on the other side of the continent.

Oh it is, but your pointing it out as if it is "weather whiplash" is total unmitigated bullshit Peter. But, it is what you do.

Anthony gets angry when any climate scientist writes about weather or climate.  Especially adverse weather - because it makes people think about global warming.  Anthony is in the business of promulgating disinformation about global warming and he doesn't want any facts to get in his way, let alone actual weather events.

The Weather Whiplash

Peter Gleick linked to a map of the USA showing California with its driest January to June on record and several states having the wettest:

Source: NCDC/NOAA