Seats available for event in response to historic droughts
While much of the Midwest has been blanketed in snow and subzero temperatures the past week due to strong arctic winds known as a polar vortex, in Madera and across the state the situation is the polar opposite.
Earlier this month the National Weather Service declared 2013 to be the driest year in California history since records began being kept in 1895.
Reservoirs across the state are far below capacity after two straight years of below-average rain and above-average temperatures; the water level at nearby Hensley Lake is at six percent capacity, Eastman at nine percent, and Kaweah at six percent among several others less than half full.
State officials aren’t ignoring the situation. The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday that the California Department of Water Resources is planning to draft an emergency drought declaration for Gov. Jerry Brown to consider as lakes dry up and the skies remain unseasonably clear...