[gregwebs]

What a great visualization!

It is sad though to click on the other tab "When Snows Fall" and see the central valley referred to as an "inhabited desert". We continually try to give the impression that we turned the Central Valley from desert into farmland, when the opposite is the case: we turned what was a winter wetlands into a desert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Valley_Grasslands_State_P...

[Roboprog]

As somebody who has lived all but about 4 years of his life in the Central Valley, it sure feels like a desert in the summer time (and late spring, and early fall) any where there is not active irrigation.

True, it's not Mojave or the Sahara, but it's pretty hot and dry. Savanna a la Africa is not a bad comparison.