November 10 virtual town hall to feature state drought manager and expert on atmospheric rivers

En español »

Jeanine Jones, drought manager for the California Department of Water Resources, and Julie Kalansky, a climate scientist from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and an expert on atmospheric rivers, will be the featured speakers at the County of Sonoma’s drought town hall meeting in November.

The virtual meeting, scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022 at 4 p.m., will be the seventh in the county’s series of monthly public forums on the drought.

Hosted by Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt, the town hall will feature updated presentations on the impact of the drought on California and the state’s response; the ramifications of our ongoing transition to a warmer and drier climate; and the outlook for atmospheric rivers, along with the role they play in flooding, drought and our water supply.

Register in advance to view the town hall live on Zoom and to pose written questions to panelists during the briefing. Questions may also be submitted in advance to publicaffairs@sonoma-county.org.

The briefing will be streamed live on the County of Sonoma Facebook page. Live translation in Spanish can be viewed on the County of Sonoma YouTube channel.

Who: Supervisor David Rabbitt; Jeanine Jones, interstate resources manager, state Department of Water Resources; and Julie Kalansky, climate scientist, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 
What: Update on the drought in Sonoma County 
Where: The virtual town hall will be streamed to the public in English on Zoom and on the County of Sonoma Facebook page. A version of the town hall featuring Spanish interpretation also will be available on the County of Sonoma YouTube channel. 
When: Thursday, Nov. 10, 4 p.m.

This webinar is part of a series of virtual town halls offered by the County of Sonoma and Sonoma Water to inform the public about the drought emergency and its impacts on Sonoma County. This will be the final drought webinar of 2022. Previous town halls can be viewed at socoemergency.org/emergency/drought.

The Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency due to drought conditions on April 27, 2021. Since then, a third consecutive year of below-average rainfall in the Russian River watershed has left the region’s two primary water storage reservoirs, Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, near historic lows. The first nine months of 2022 have been the second-driest in Sonoma County in 128 years, with rainfall 18.6 inches below normal.

Visit sonomawater.org/drought to learn more about the drought.

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Media Contacts: 
Ted Appel, Communications Specialist, County of Sonoma 
publicaffairs@sonoma-county.org
(707) 565-3040

Andrea Rodriguez, Communications Manager, Sonoma Water 
Andrea.Rodriguez@scwa.ca.gov