“Unlike the previous AR that targeted Northern California, we will see a significant amount of precipitation with this storm.”
NWS Hanford forecast discussion Monday said “The big story” is the atmospheric river event for later this week hitting the California coast. This setup is “very favorable for more rain in the Valley and foothills and Sierra Nevada snow.”
Latest probabilities have a 25 to 55 percent chance of an inch and a half or more of rain for the Valley total in this storm with the foothills having a 40 to 75 percent chance of 3 inches or more total in this storm. The highest probabilities have shifted over recent model runs to be concentrated towards Sequoia National Park.
Burn scars will also see a major impact from the rain with a 55 to 75 percent chance of 3 inches or more total except for the Borel burn scar near Lake Isabella which has a 45 percent chance of 2 inches or more total which is still significant. These high rainfall probabilities increase the risk of mudslides, debris, and flooding for the burn scars that a flood product may be issued as early as this afternoon.
Concern is high this week in the Los Angeles area that several of the major wildfire areas may suffer significant debris flow from intense rain.Most of the rain is expected to fall on Thursday.
Hanford NWS says in the Sierra Nevada, we are looking at a 65 percent and higher chance of 36 inches or more of snow total above 8,000 feet for the storm. On Saturday, the storm moves out.
Another NOAA chart expects up to 7.6 inches of precip in Sequoia NP, grey in the map. So far this year, the Giant Forest station has received under 13 inches of precip suggesting this AR, like some others, can help boost overall numbers for the water year in a big way.
The storm promises to be a big snow maker according to the resorts with both China Peak and Mammoth expecting over 5 feet.
“Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California,” President Trump posted on Friday on social media in an apparent reference to the dam releases. “Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago — There would have been no fire!”
This past Thursday, the Army Corps released water from two dams in California, Lake Kaweah and Lake Success- in order to “ensure California has water available to respond to the wildfires,” said a Corps spokesperson.
The release is continuing over the weekend according to the Corps website. As of February 1 at 9 AM Kaweah Lake is down nearly 3000 acre feet from January 30- from 40,000s, down to near 37,000af – with that water sent downstream even though farmers don’t irrigate as of February
UPDATE: It is down 4000 acre feet as of Sunday Feb 2
It’s not clear how far the water could flow but the last stop is Tulare lakebed about 30 miles away.
All of the Kaweah River flow is retained in Tulare and Kings counties to supply farmers needing irrigation water in the summer months. None will help LA fire suppression.
None of the Kaweah or Tule river’s flow extends beyond the enclosed lake basin and certainly doesn’t go to Los Angeles 200 miles away. In fact farmers have made a point of wanting to retain water that flows from their backyards and strongly oppose any effort to export it. Kings County, where the lakebed is, has an ordinance to that effect.
Nevertheless, the LA Times reported that an Army Corps spokesperson tied the releases to Trump’s executive order on Sunday directing all federal agencies to maximize water deliveries and misleadingly blaming state water management for the Los Angeles fires.
“Consistent with the direction in the Executive Order on Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is releasing water from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Success Lake to ensure California has water available to respond to the wildfires,” Gene Pawlik said in a statement. (Firefighters had contained the Palisades and Eaton fires to 98 and 99 percent as of Friday morning.)
Kaweah water managers decried the release, noting it will do little to fight fires in Los Angeles, but would reduce water storage for Tulare and Kings County farmers, arguably Mr. Trump’s strong constituents.Both counties voted strongly for Mr Trump.
But farmers want to keep all the surface water they can upstream until irrigation season- months away.
“We need to keep every bit that we have, because this potentially is irrigation water that we have up there,” Kaweah Watermaster Victor Hernandez said. He said he was still trying to get members of Congress to intervene to slow the releases on Friday, including Reps. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Vince Fong (R-Calif.). None responded to requests for comment.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dramatically increased the amount of water flowing from Kaweah and Tule Rivers into Lake Kaweah and Success Lake on Thursday night at the order of the Trump administration.
Press reports say the order initially called for as much water as possible to flow from the rivers known as “channel capacity,” with only an hour’s notice to local water officials, leaving them scrambling. After local water officials expressed their concerns, the Army Corp of Engineers reduced the amount released although it was still far above normal on Friday morning.
When it comes to these types of releases that are normally done because of flooding, Tulare Irrigation District General Manager Aaron Fukada told SJV Water “Normally, these kinds of flood releases are done with a lot of notification and coordination,” Fukuda said. “I’ve been doing this for 18 years and have never seen something like this.”
The Porterville paper reported The Army Corps of Engineers is “conducting controlled water releases” from the two dams, said Tyler Stalker, a spokesperson for the Corps in Sacramento about the Lake Kaweah Dam and the Richard L. Schafer Dam at Success Lake. “The action is being coordinated with local officials. The releases are within the capacity of the downstream waterways.”
Gene Pawlik, a spokesperson at the Corps’ headquarters in Washington, D.C., told the Los Angeles Times the action was “consistent with the direction” in Trump’s recent executive order to enact “emergency measures to provide water resources” in California.
Is this an example of ‘shock and awe’ and ‘ flooding the zone”?
More bird flu cases in California, US and worldwide
2.8 mil Indiana egg ranch hit
New bird flu strain found in Merced
Just in time for Easter, expect an on-going egg shortage this season as feathers continue to fly in the nation’s poultry industry. And worldwide. It seems like Chicken Little was right as a strain of the highly infectious “bird flu” wipes out whole flocks of chickens across the U.S. and around the world.
It really does seem like the sky is falling as the storybook tale goes. Just ask a chicken or a farmer.
The state and national poultry industries are reeling this week from the bird flu epidemic that has wiped over 150 million birds across the US putting more stress on the poultry industry already under price pressures.
In California in the past few days, Foster Farms announced the closure of its turkey processing facility in Turlock saying it was “responding to changes in market demand.” The plant is expected to close May 9 resulting in the permanent layoff of 519 employees. The shuttering of the processing plant will spill over on the production side at Valley ranches that will now have no home for their turkeys as well.
California is already a small player in turkey production. In 2023, California produced approximately 197.8 million pounds of turkey, a small fraction of the U.S. total of 6.99 billion pounds.
Zacky Farms went out of business a few years ago.In 2019 Foster Farms completed the acquisition of 19 former Zacky poultry ranches in the Central Valley, as part of Zacky Farms’ bankruptcy settlement proceedings.Those ranches were added to the 40 ranches already owned by Foster Farms that have supplied both turkey and chicken meat.
Meanwhile, this week, two more duck meat poultry operations in Madera and Merced counties had to lay down their flocks as bird flu infected their farms. Already the bird flu has depopulated two thirds of the egg ranches in California as of January.Increasingly eggs will be supplied by out of state hens.Now add turkey to the list.
New strain found in Merced
A new strain of bird flu has been found in the Valley.Called H5N9, has been detected for the first time in the US, raising concerns about how it continues to spread.The strain was discovered at a commercial duck farm in California’s Merced County, and was reported to the World Organization for Animal Health, which maintains a database of animal disease threats. While H5N9 is not currently considered a serious threat to humans, experts warn that more mutations could increase the risk of bird flu spreading to people in the future.
Scientists are particularly concerned about a process called “reassortment,” The Washington Post reported, where different flu strains mix in infected animals, creating new versions of the virus.
The US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed that the H5N9 strain detected in California is the result of reassortment involving H5N1, the strain that’s already spreading rapidly in the US.
California is not the only place where poultry farms are being targeted by the virus.
National supplier Rose Acres Farms, the second largest egg producer in the US released a statement that it had to detected the highly pathogenic bird flu at its farm in Seymour, Indiana with the elimination of 2.8 million birds
The egg shortage nationwide has driven up the price of your breakfast eggs to about $9 a dozen.
Meanwhile other producers are under pressure. Americans are consuming less turkey than they have in past decades affecting companies who are feeling an industry oversupply like Foster Farms and,Cargill. Cargill just announced it will close their Springdale, Arkansas, turkey plant Aug. 1, laying off 1,100 employees.
Turkey consumption in the United States has been declining in recent years. In 2023, Americans ate an average of 14.8 pounds of turkey per person -an 18% decrease from 1996. For 2024 per capita consumption is expected to fall to 13.9 pounds, says USDA. Farmers are also getting less for their product as the per pound price has dropped to below $1.All this forces more consolidation in the industry.
Bird flu spreads worldwide
Recent reports say during January 2025 Japan reported 14 outbreaks to the World Organization of Animal Health of which one involved a quail farm but with the remainder all table egg flocks. A total of 3.8 million hens have been depopulated through January 27th representing 2.2 percent of the population of approximately 170 million.
South Korea has recorded 29 outbreaks of HPAI among commercial poultry including ducks and laying hens since October 2024. The incidence conforms to the migratory patterns of marine birds and waterfowl, the same dynamic that hit the US.
Canada confirmed 51 cases of HPAI i 2024 requiring depopulation of 14.5 million commercial turkeys, broilers or laying hens. Losses were recorded in British Columbia (8.7 million), Alberta (2.0 million), Quebec (1.4 million) and Ontario (1.1 million).
Kaweah Health expects to open a number of new facilities in Tulare County this year, says Chief Strategy Officer Marc Mertz. Tops on the list is a new 13,000 square-foot combination primary and specialty clinic that will be opening on Akers in the former Cigna building. Kaweah has leased the space from Tulare County who now owns the Class A office building. Patients will be able to walk into the clinic on the ground floor located right across the hall from another 10,000 square-foot space the hospital leases in the building for office uses.
“We hope to open by June” says Mertz.”We are working on a new name” in order to retire any reference to Cigna
Mertz says one of draws of this site includes the need to add more primary care space in Visalia that he describes as woefully short now.The modern multi-story building – the largest office space in town – will help attract new physicians and graduating resident docs already here, helping to boost the number of physicians in the area, they expect.
The new clinic, besides offering primary and specialty care, will include pre-surgery testing services (Kaweah Admissions and Testing Services, or KATS), a Lab draw and Imaging services. Mertz notes they may add more space in the building with another 30,000sf space available now that Cigna Insurance has completely vacated the 180,000sf complex.
“We should have the ability for us to expand/grow additional clinical space, either by adding Kaweah Health clinics and services, or to sublease space to private community physicians.”
Construction of the space is expected to be underway soon.
Another site Kaweah Health is targeting for expansion is the five-story medical building at 202 W Willow, a half back away from the Downtown hospital.
Services located here or soon will include : · Retail Pharmacy · Orthopedic clinic · New OB/GYN clinic- recently opened · New pediatric clinic- coming soon · Outpatient pulmonology clinic (coming in May) · IQ Surgical Associates- private surgery practice affiliated with Kaweah Health’s surgery residency program and our surgical services · Kaweah Health Employee Health · Our trauma administration team · Small Kaweah Health administrative offices
Then there is construction work to open the new Child and Adolescent Crisis Stabilization Unit located on 3rd St in the north side of Visalia.This is the former Boy Scouts building in Visalia where remodeling work is already underway looking to open by August of this year.
The much needed service will provide 24/7 mental health services for children and youth 21 years and younger.Mertz adds that you could ” Think of it as an advanced urgent care for mental health issues. Patients can be brought in by family members, or EMS.”
The new facility will be operated by Kaweah Health, supported by our Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship program and physicians.
They plan to work collaboratively with Tulare County Behavioral Health. To launch this project,the hospital got funds from a state behavioral health grant that Kaweah Health and the County jointly applied for and was awarded approximately $5 million to purchase the building and develop the services. Ongoing funding will be from the County and patient insurance providers.
Additionally, in Woodlake, Kaweah plans to open a second rural health clinic in the community under construction now on the new roundabout at the entrance to town.
Lastly Kaweah Health still hopes to open a surgery center at the Sequoia Gateway property on Hwy 99 at Caldwell in a partnership with private physicians.
Asked about the fiscal health of the district, Mertz says they are optimistic that in the second half of this fiscal year that ends in late June should be profitable with a positive margin after cutting expenses and planned expansions underway.
Bankrupt fabric retailer Joann Stores has announced they will close their West Coast distribution center in Visalia in late March and 209 people who work at the plant will be laid off permanently. The word comes from a state WARN notice that requires a 60 day notice for workers published January 29.
Closure of the big distribution center is expected to be followed by the closure of most or all of the retail stores it supplies including the retail outlet on S. Mooney Blvd although no notice has been filed for retail outlets, as of yet.
One of the long time anchors of the Visalia Industrial Park, JOANN Stores has declared bankruptcy in March and now a second time in January 2025 that dims the future of both the entire 880 store chain and the local Visalia retail store, and now the seals the fate of its landmark distribution center on Plaza Drive – a fixture here since 2001.
The 635,000 square-foot facility employs around 200 year-round and more during the holiday season. The company says the Visalia distribution center handles all the stores west of the Mississippi, about a third of the Ohio company stores nationwide. The company leases the building in Visalia from a Texas real estate investment trust. As of March 2020, Joann has 865 stores in 49 states. Joann was privately owned by Leonard Green & Partners before going public in 2021. It is privately held now.
The company is currently in bankruptcy for the second time in a year, filing on January 15, 2025.
In 1943, German immigrants Hilda and Berthold Reich, Sigmund and Mathilda Rohrbach, and Justin and Alma Zimmerman opened the Cleveland Fabric Shop in Cleveland, Ohio. After further expansion, in 1963, the name was changed to Jo-Ann Fabrics. The store’s name was created by combining the names of the daughters from both families: Joan and Jacqueline Ann, says Wikipedia.
JOANN is an 81-year-old fabric and craft retailer that has suffered in the past few years as customers cut back on discretionary spending. The company says it is the nation’s category leader in sewing and fabrics with one of the largest arts and crafts offerings,They announced that is continuing their voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Court”) to facilitate a sale process to maximize the value of its business.
Through the bankruptcy proceedings there’s always a possibility that a buyer will emerge for the chain, but the filing of this notice by the company is not good news for JoAnn or for Visalia. Many of the workers at this Plaza Drive plant have worked there for decades.
Jan 4,2025: Northern California looks to join Southern California with a persistent dry pattern through mid January, typically the launch of the California rainy season.
The upper part of California has seen an above normal rainfall pattern for the start of the water year but now the next two weeks look dry and increasingly warm.
Above is the 10-day chart for Redding California, just a few miles from the state’s largest reservoir.
Meanwhile Southern California faces high winds and a tinder dry landscape with the forecast this week suggesting ” extremely critical” conditions that may unfold this week.
The first Dept of Water Resources snowpack reading in California this season was released in the past few days suggesting “extreme shifts” in the weather so far.
“While our snowpack looks good now, we have a long way until April when our water supply picture will be more complete,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “Extreme shifts between dry and wet conditions are continuing this winter and if the past several years are any indication, anything could happen between now and April and we need to be prepared.”
DWR’s electronic readings from 130 stations placed throughout the Sierra Nevada indicate that the statewide snowpack’s snow water equivalent is 10.7 inches, or 108 percent of average for this date, compared to 28 percent on this date last year.
California has seen this pattern before. In both 2013 and 2022, the January snowpack was well above average thanks to December storm activity, only for dry conditions to take over the rest of the winter, quickly erasing early season snow totals and continuing existing drought conditions across the state.”
This water year the Redding area is 120 percent of normal for January 4 while Riverside, in SoCal, is 1 percent
Major reservoirs statewide are currently 121 percent of average thanks to two consecutive years of above average snowpack conditions, which occurred after the driest three-year period on record in California, says DWR.
The see-saw pattern can be seen with DWR’s electronic readings from 130 stations placed throughout the Sierra Nevada indicating that the statewide snowpack’s snow water equivalent is 10.7 inches, or 108 percent of average for this date, compared to just 28 percent on this date last year.
This water year the Redding area is 120 percent of normal for January 4 while Riverside, in SoCal, is 1 percent.
Longtime critic of the California High-Speed Rail project, Kings County Supervisor Doug Verboon, is reacting to incoming President Trump’s vow to claw back construction money for the costly project although much of the Central Valley infrastructure work is nearing completion.
“I’ve told our fellow Republicans if you wanted to cut off funding, you should’ve done that 14 years ago – not when we have unfinished overpasses and bridges yet to complete.” He said he recently had a conversation with Congressman McClintock.
Verboon spent more than a decade fighting the project in court but now advocates for it to run Amtrak trains when the route is complete in coming years even if some HSR funding stops. Amtrak is less controversial among the GOP and could get regular funding, he figures.
Today Verboon sits on the San Joaquin Valley Rail Board as its Vice Chair and wants to make sure Kings County residents get consistent and faster rail service even though they won’t be traveling at 200mph.
Verboon reflects that it will be a while before full high-speed rail connects Los Angeles to San Francisco.Republicans have targeted the project as just too expensive.
But Supervisor wants the rail alignment, overpasses and bridges and as well as the planned Hanford station to be built eventually for high speed rail but in the meantime for Amtrak train service. The service should be faster and safer for both passengers and motorists since the rail line no longer interfaces with freight trains, car and truck traffic and goes over busy streets.
“”We will still have a station to be located near Lacey Blvd.”But he doubts there will be enough money to electrify the rail line as the Authority wants to do. “It’ll probably still be diesel, but the service should be improved for consumers.”
Verboon says if a private entity like the group that’s building the new high-speed LA to Las Vegas rail line wants to come to the Central Valley, that might work, particularly since the alignment and infrastructure will be mostly in place and environmentally cleared. That entity would still have to connect from Bakersfield to Palmdale.
Despite opposition to high-speed rail, it seems unlikely that anyone would want the 119 mile built-infrastructure in place in the Central Valley to just sit there, mothballed rather than use it after billions of dollars spent by the public.
Advocates still want to electrify the system as they have promised and joint-ventured recently with CalTrain in the Bay Area. The idea has been to replace current San Joaquins service south of Merced.
The Authority says the California High-Speed Rail Authority trains will run on a “blended system” in the area, meaning they will share these electric tracks and their infrastructure. The Authority committed $714 million to Caltrain’s Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project, nearly 40 percent of the total $2 billion cost, as part of its progress toward a fully electric statewide rail network This summer the regional rail system Caltrain transitioned away from old-fashioned diesel service to fully electric lines and high-performance electric cars on the 51-mile route between San Francisco and San Jose.
Both the current Caltrain cars and the future high-speed rail cars will run at speeds of up to 110 miles per hour on the blended tracks, up from the current top speed of 79 miles per hour. Future modernization of the rail corridor will include extending electrification of approximately 30 miles from San José to Gilroy, they predict.
The state wants to electrify the Central Valley rail route and has said they want to build a dedicated solar farm to power the system. In January, the Authority is pressing on with plans to select a train set manufacturer.
New subdivision in Northwest Hanford
Visalia builder San Joaquin Valley Homes is planning a third Hanford subdivision, this time in the northwest corner of the city. The company has filed its first environmental notice called a Notice of Preparation on the 135-acre,615 home subdivision to be built in four phases in the city. Still ahead, the project must undergo a full environmental impact report before it can move forward. Called the Neves Residential Project, the site is currently a fruit orchard.Phase one of the project would construct 140 units and build a 7-acre park.The location is at the northwest corner of Fargo and 12th
Bird Flu impacting milk supply/ More poultry are infected
Governor Gavin Newsom Dec 18, proclaimed a State of Emergency to streamline and expedite the state’s response to Avian influenza A (H5N1), commonly known as “Bird Flu.”
Three more Tulare County poultry ranches were hit by bird flu in the past few days. Meanwhile, USDA reports that the number of California dairies affected by bird flu stands at 645 with 56 of those dairies now having recovered and no longer quarantined. Some 311 California dairies have been infected in the past 30 days, says a December 17 USDA report.
USDA reported Monday December 16 that two more Tulare County poultry ranches have been hit by H5N1 Bird Flu resulting in the destruction of all the birds there. The results were confirmed December 13 and 14. The two unnamed farms include one broiler ranch where 514,0000 birds died and one duck meat farm where 41,000 birds were lost. On December 10 another ranch in the county was hit resulting in the euthanizing of 320,200 broilers.
With these three recent ranches,Tulare County has now seen 9 poultry operations affected by the highly contagious virus with the total number of birds lost adding up to around 1.7 million since late September.
Both nearby Kings and Kern Counties I’ve also suffered the loss of millions of birds from the spread of this strain of bird flu.Kern County has lost 3.2 million egg layers.
Impact on milk supply A December 9 USDA report says” handlers in California indicate milk production varies from slightly weaker to slightly stronger this week compared to the week prior, but milk output is still down in terms of a year-over-year comparison by a significant percent.” Bird Flu impacts are suspected.In October California milk production was down almost 4% compared to Oct 2023.The virus impacts adds to a downward trend in production in California. If California milk production is lower, Texas is up 9% and South Dakota is up 8%.
Cotton Production in California including acreage, yield and production are all up in 2025 says a new USDA report. Pima Cotton is leading the way with a production estimate of 402,000 bales versus just 230,000 bales in 2023.
Thomas Compost project to be heard by Planning Commission The Kings County Planning Commission will hear a proposal January 6 to build a composting facility at 20th and Excelsior in Kings County.
The applicant is Thomas Compost who is proposing a two phase schedule including building a commercial manure composting facility with a truck scale, office and retention pond. The 63-acre project has drawn some opposition from neighbors. The project will be heard by two new planning commissioner members, Alonso Puga, and Brent Madillo.
Cheer for gas prices this holiday season with a dozen stations in Kings County selling regular for $3.60 down to $3.30 a gallon says GasBuddy. AAA says the Kings County average price this week is $4.11 vs $4.34 this time last year.
Rain for XMAS? NWS Hanford says there is a 20 to 45% probability of any rain accumulating on Saturday through Monday for most of the Valley. Probabilities increase for rain on Tuesday (Christmas Eve). Snowpack is bountiful in the Tahoe area sasy the Sierra Snow lab at 191% of average so far. The state says snow water content in northern California mountains is 205% of average while the southern Sierra stands at a respectable 105% of average. Huntington Lake has 39 inches of snow on the ground this week.
Both local home buyers and ag exporters are complaining about the rising cost of doing business these days. Mortgage rates have been climbing since this summer according to Zillow with the current 30-year rate pegged at 6.75%. That’s up almost a full point from early October.
Fredie Mac says stubborn mortgage rates have moved between 6 and 7 percent over the last 12 months forcing home buyers to accept the higher rates if they want to own a home. Seeing these high rates also slows home builder plans to offer new product.
California farmers and manufacturers looking to send their products overseas have seen a similar spike as offshore customers have to pay about 8% more for products than they used to.That gives foreign competitors an edge. The so-called Dollar Index has risen that much just since early October.The index goes up when the U.S. dollar gains “strength” (value) when compared to other currencies. We export almost 80% of cotton grown here and 67% of our almonds. About 20% of our milk production goes to the export market.
California milk production falls 9% in November
Bird flu has done a number on California milk production, the US’s number-one dairy state.With more sick cows the volume of milk produced in November dropped in a month by the most that USDA has ever recorded – 9.2 percent. About one in four California dairies came down with avian influenza in November and just before Christmas the number of dairies affected totaled 645, about 60% of the state’s diaries.The good news, now about 56 diaries have seen their quarantine lifted as the cows have recovered.
Kings jobless rate improved
The unemployment rate in Kings County was 7.8 percent in November 2024, below the year-ago estimate of 7.9 percent.The county added about 600 nonfarm jobs year over year, led by health services jobs.
In next door Fresno County, nonfarm jobs and farm jobs headed in opposite directions.Between November 2023 and November 2024, total industry employment increased by 3,400 jobs (up 0.8 percent). Nonfarm employment rose by 8,100 jobs (up 2.1 percent), while farm employment declined by 4,700 jobs (down 12.9 percent).
That included government payroll climbing by 4,000 jobs. year over year. Gains were in local government (up 3,400 jobs), state government (up 400 jobs), and federal government (up 200 jobs).
Jet fuel price powers travel economy Jet fuel currently accounts for about 30% of airlines’ operating costs and it is the largest and most volatile expense category.The price of kerosene-based jet fuel climbed to over $4 a gallon in June 2022 but has declined by half since – close to pre-pandemic levels.Airlines are able to offer lower fares this holiday period and more passengers are flying than ever.
N.California stays wet/South dry
The forecast for Redding California, next to the state’s largest reservoir, calls for over 5 inches of precip over this holiday week with rain five days in a row.High pressure is steering storms north while the south faces continued danger of fire approaching the new year.
Meteorologists say the north is on track to experience their wettest start to the Water Year on record while wide swaths of SoCal are on track to meet or tie the record for their driest start to the Water Year.
Upscale furniture retailer Living Spaces, based in Mirada California, has leased 40,000sf for a warehouse at 1717 N Shirk in the Visalia Industrial Park.The company has filed job notices online.
Living Spaces recently opened the first Central Valley store in Fresno.The stores are large, ranging from 80,000sf to 320,000sf. The new Fresno store is 105,000sf. They have some 40 locations in the Western states.
The privately-held retailer sells over 35 brands of furniture and offers playrooms for children to play in while their parents shop. It is also one of the only stores that offer same-day delivery in some areas, being the inspiration for its motto: “Buy it today, enjoy it tonight.”
The natural question for Visalians – will the company open a retail location here as well?
Teriyaki Madness restaurant to open at Sequoia Mall
Japanese fast-casual restaurant chain Teriyaki Madness is coming to Visalia, located next to the new Starbucks in the Sequoia Mall just off Caldwell.Construction is underway.
Chicken to go will replace Check ‘N Go on North Dinuba Blvd
National fast food chain WingStop will replace the Check ‘N Go store at 2015 N Dinuba Blvd according to a tenant improvement application filed by the company. WingStop has a restaurant on South Mooney and like many other chains will open twin locations on the northside
Visalia awarded $11.4 mil to complete”elevated “bike trail across the city
At their December 6 meeting the California Transportation Commission awarded the City of Visalia $11.4 million to complete a portion of the Santa Fe Trail that will cross the city.Called Beyond Bike Lanes – Elevating Santa Fe Street the dedicated bike trail allows people to go north/south from Riggin south passed Caldwell on a dedicate paved trail.This newly funded leg of the project proposes to construct a 2-way cycle track along the east side of the Santa Fe St from Tulare Ave to Houston Ave through Downtown. The project will include sidewalk improvements to accommodate pedestrian travel and intersection improvement to increase visibility and safety of all non-motorized road users.
Santa Fe is a former rail line alignment that ran from Calwa in Fresno County to Cutler, Visalia and then Tulare to Corcoran. Both Visalia and Tulare have purchased the right of way to make bike and pedestrian trails in their towns.The long range plan is to connect the trail inter-city.
pic: The bike tail will be elevated away from car traffic
Dec 24: USDA announced that three more California egg ranches have been infected with bird flu and had to destroy their flocks. The latest count includes two very large egg ranches in the state including a 1.1 million bird ranch in Riverside and one in San Joaquin County with 627,000 hens. USDA says a third ranch has not yet reported numbers.
California is the state that has had the most flock and bird losses due to HPAI infections in 2024 sweeping the nation.
The impact on the state egg laying flock has been a near wipe out since September. The count since September adds up to over 8 million egg layers lost in California.Egg prices both nationwide and in California have skyrocketed this fall- from around $1.60 dozen to $7.40 in late December in California.
California once boasted 25 million hens as of 1998.
The monthly USDA poultry report says as of December 2022 California had 13 million egg layers. By December 2023, it was down to 11.3 million and as of December 2024 the number has dropped to 7.5 million hens.
The latest report does not include December losses in California that could mean there may be just a few million egg laying chickens left standing.
California Poultry Federation President Bill Mattos says the dairy industry and poultry industry need to work together. He says that tracing studies of the virus at poultry operations suggest that 70% of the infections are coming from the diaries. “I’m not blaming them, but the two industries must work together to step up biosecurity”
Mattos adds that the California egg industry would welcome a USDA sponsored vaccination plan for their birds, but that the US broiler industry, harvesting both chickens and turkeys, export about 30% of their product and world export rules do not allow those animals to be vaccinated.
December 14 – Raw milk produced and packaged by Valley Milk Simply Bottled of Stanislaus County is the subject of a statewide recall and quarantine order by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). The recall order came following the detection of Influenza-A H5N1 (bird flu) virus in samples taken from a raw milk bulk tank at the Valley Milk Simply Bottled dairy farm.
The order applies to all “Valley Milk Simply Bottled Raw Cow Milk” and “DESI Milk Raw Cow Milk” distributed in quart (32 oz), half-gallon (64 oz), and one-gallon (128 oz) plastic jugs with a code date marked on the container of DEC 23 2024 through Dec 30, 2024.
As of December 24 there have been 233 new bird flu infections on California dairies since December 1.
Too many apples: This year’s large Washington apple crop is depressing prices. Washington had what is believed to be its third largest apple crop ever in 2024-25, but that’s a mixed blessing as oversupply remains a problem.
If there are too many Pacific Northwest apples – turns out there are too few pears. Reports say fresh pears could be harder to find in grocery store aisles nationwide in the coming year. Bad winter weather and a record-setting freeze in January hit hard in Washington and Oregon, damaging much of this year’s expected pear crop. It will be the smallest U.S. pear crop in 40 years, projected Wednesday by the Washington State Tree Fruit Association.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – In late December the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced an update to the State Water Project (SWP) allocation forecast for 2025. The allocation has increased to 15 percent of requested supplies, up from the initial allocation forecast of 5 percent announced earlier this month. The SWP provides water to 29 public water agencies that serve 27 million Californians.
Shasta to see more than 7 inches by New Years
Potent storms continue to pound Northern California bringing in 60 ft waves along the coast and partially collapsing the Santa Cruz pier.The parade of storms are adding to the early snowpack totals that feed reservoir storage for the coming year.Forecasts call for 7 inches of precip from Dec 27 to Jan 1 at Shasta Dam.
UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab in Tahoe reported Dec 27, the station set a new December record breaking a 1970 record of 179 inches and expecting more than 200 inches by December 31.
Northern California snowpack is now 171% of normal for the date.
In our region Giant Forest reports about 9 inches of precip so far this water year compared to 3.6 inches at this time in 2023.
Cottage cheese consumption is at its highest in a decade US PER CAPITA DAIRY CONSUMPTION RISES AGAIN
Propelled by record cheese use and gains in butter, cottage cheese and yogurt, U.S. per capita dairy consumption returned to 1950s levels last year, according to USDA data released just before Thanksgiving.
At 661 pounds per person, the amount of milk Americans consume is back to where it was in 2021, which in turn was on par with the year Buddy Holly died — at least in terms of dairy U.S. dairy consumption.
What’s driving the trend? Think cheese, which has doubled in per capita consumption over the past 50 years even as per capita fluid milk use has declined. Or look at butter, at its highest since the 1960s. And fermented dairy products are having a moment — cottage cheese consumption is at its highest in a decade, and yogurt is also rising.
Cottage Cheese
An essential step in the manufacturing process distinguishing cottage cheese from other fresh cheeses is the addition of a “dressing” to the curd grains, usually cream, which is mainly responsible for the taste of the product. Cottage cheese is not aged. Cottage cheese can be low in calories compared to other types of cheese — similar to yogurt; this makes it popular among dieters and some health devotees.
The only disappointment? Rounding. If you drill more deeply into the numbers, 2023 didn’t quite match 2021, with consumption at 660.7 pounds, compared to 661.2 two years ago. But with positive signs in sales and the holidays ahead, there’s still a chance for Americans to push 2024 to new heights.
