Stanford Stories XX - Water for the Bay Area II

After a few weeks in Europe visiting friends and family in Leuven, Antwerp, the Ardennes, Goerlitz and Potsdam (a special thanks to all the hosts!), I came back to Stanford in mid January. It was a truly great time back home, where I could recharge my batteries.

Back home, I missed three weeks with very intense winter storms in California. These storms dumped historic levels of water and snow in two and half weeks. E.g. San Francisco saw ca. 44mm of rain which is 78% of the rainfall the city expects through a whole year. These intense precipitations lead to landslides and floods across the whole state killing several people.

Even the San Franciso Creek - a tiny creek transporting water from the mountains of the peninsula into the bay - almost flooded some streets of Palo Alto. On my daily commute to work, I am crossing this creek every day and from August until December, I have never seen any water inside. When I came back, I was very surprised to see that its water level rose to 3.6m. Fortunately, nothing happened in Palo Alto and Menlo Park, but there was severe damage in Santa Cruz and the mountains between Stanford and the ocean (my boss had no power for 3 days). However, the storms fueled by so-called atmospheric rivers, also had a couple of positive side effects: (1) The water level of all of the reservoirs in California quickly increased which is important for a state that is prone to wild fires and droughts. (2) There are record levels of snow in the Sierras which is great news for all folks enjoying winter sports. (3) Even “lake” Lagunitas on the Stanford Campus, which is usually dry, was filled with water.

Last but not least, Stanford got a new prominent resident. Sam Bankman-Fried, the guy who embezzled billions of dollars using fraud with crypto “currencies”, is now under arrest at his parents (both law professors at Stanford) house on campus. Apparently, security levels on certain streets had to be increased to keep a few furious people out.