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National Weather Service: Northern California on pace for "wettest water year" ever

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X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Northern-California-now-on-pace-for-wettest-10837847.php

After many long years of waiting, California's drought relief may finally be here. Snow has piled up over five feet in some parts of the Sierra Nevada since the Sunday storm. And while the first snow survey of the year actually came in below average in terms of snow accumulation, there are reasons for optimism.

"Right now we are on pace to have the wettest water year on record," said forecaster Mike Kochasic with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, referencing conditions in Northern California. "The wettest was 1982-1983, and we're on pace or even slightly better than that at this point in the water year. We still have a long way to go, though."

Central California is on track to be the second wettest water year on record, and Southern California is expected to tie the wettest year, which was the year of '68-'69.

"It's awesome for the drought," he said. "Hopefully it's going to kick it out the door."

On Thursday morning, NWS reported totals of reaching 83 inches at Squaw Alpine Ski Resort, 76 inches at Soda Springs, 67 inches at Sugarbowl, 62 inches Sierra at Tahoe, and 57 inches at Kingvale, all since Sunday. All those peaks are over 5,000 feet. It has also snowing buckets a little further south, where Mammoth Ski Resort has seen new snow accumulation of between 40 and 84 inches just in last day and a half.

Another storm is expected to roll through the mountains this weekend, but it won't pack as much snow as the last one.

"The snow levels are going to continue to rise because the system is a warmer one, so it's going to be mostly rain," said Kochasic. "We've got a flooding threat because with the warmer temperatures, the snow will start to melt. We could see some excessive runoff, some smaller creeks and streams are swollen and might flood. The really high peaks might get some additional snowfall but its more a rainfall threat."
Click to expand...

Another big storm is due to hit NorCal this weekend. Combined with the past storm earlier in the week, some places in the Bay Area are gonna end up with over a foot of rain total after all the storms pass and it's not even halfway through the month.

Other weather related news:

Folsom Lake rises 5 feet in 24 hour

Yosemite’s Merced River threatens to spill its banks

Monster storm could bring worst flooding in over a decade
 
N

Nekofrog

Banned
The storm we just had in norcal was nuts, the wind legit sounded like resident evil 2 outside the rpd. Bring it on nature
 
S

studyguy

Member
Mammoth mountain is getting 20+ inches of snow through the next 10 days. I'm going at the end of the month so wew.
 
P

pablito

Member
Yeah that storm the other day had my doors rattling. Cool and scary.

We need it though. Keep it coming.
 
S

smurfx

get some go again
gonna rain a bunch in socal too this week and next. you guys better be saving that water for socal xia.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
smurfx said:
gonna rain a bunch in socal too this week and next. you guys better be saving that water for socal xia.
Click to expand...

SoCal freeways and lots of rain...

mklT8u9.jpg
 
R

Rootbeer

Banned
Been getting a lot of rain in SF past week or two. Well, a lot by recent standards!

I love it but it always seems to start up when I'm leaving for work and I commute mostly by foot. That's really my only complaint :p Gotta get used to it I guess!

Been meaning to get a new Umbrella anyway.
 
L

Laekon

Member
It rained 24 hrs straight where I live in So Cal. While every bit helps we need snow pack in the Sierras to last well into summer. 1 or 2 big storms followed by high temps just means some flooding and a lot of water going into the ocean.
 
E

ErichWK

Member
Thank fucking god. I live in San Diego and I make the drive to San Francisco and San Jose a lot. Every time i drive by that shallow reservoir it gives me anxiety about us running out of water.
 
T

Trevelyan

Banned
I'm in the Sierra foothills, in the Shenandoah Valley and we've had crazy amounts of rain here the last month, and aside from being dry today, will have continuous rain for the next week. It's fantastic except I'd really, really like to be able to mow my lawn before it gets out of control, hah.
 
R

RuGalz

Member
I wish there was a way to store more water. We'll probably be hit with another decade of drought after this.
 
F

fredrancour

Member
so what metrics of long-term environmental health should we be looking at as the year goes on to see how much drought damage is mitigated? are there snowpack stats, aquifer stats, forest health reports on the rate at which trees die?
 
U

Username1198

Member
Thank god or whoever (whomever?).

I live in NorCal and it's been scarily bone dry. It pretty much rained non stop yesterday, today's sunny but the rain will be back Saturday for most of the week.
 
S

Syncytia

Member
Pack it up folks, we solved global warming. All hail Trump.

This is pretty good news though... hopefully it's not just a one off. I mean obviously it is... but hopefully we don't go straight back to horrible drought water levels.
 
L

Laekon

Member
fredrancour said:
so what metrics of long-term environmental health should we be looking at as the year goes on to see how much drought damage is mitigated? are there snowpack stats, aquifer stats, forest health reports on the rate at which trees die?
Click to expand...
Snowpack is the big one I see on indications for a year. Ski resorts don't help as they make snow but parks like Yosemite collect and post info on social media. Underground aquifers and forest are long term and hard to measure.
 
S

SpecX

Member
Loving all the rain SoCal has been getting. Haven't had my sprinklers on in nearly a month now and it's crazy seeing ditches on the side of the road filled with water for a change instead of tumbleweeds or dry brush.
 
I

Instro

Member
Yeah not surprising at all. We were getting good rain basically every week in December in SoCal. More than we've had in years. January looking the same.
 
S

studyguy

Member
Rain has been going pretty decently since December now in Southern California. Nice to see something similar to 10 years back. It's stopped today but supposedly still picking up through next week. Roads are bad sure, but at least it's not the truly awful oil slick rained on roads that happen after months of drought like we normally get.
 
M

MiniBossBattle

Member
In the Bay Area, its crazy to take pictures of the creeks and steams my daughter and go on hikes around seeing a healthy stream to dry river beds the past three years to the current deep streams we see now. Really nice to see/hear creeks healthy again.
 
jchap

jchap

Member
So much for that century long drought. Glad to see it. Went in 2014 to Napa and it was so dried up and brown it looked like winter.
 
A

Ac30

Member
Is Jerry Brown going to keep those water restrictions in place? Because I forsee shortsightedness taking hold again :/
 
B

Borgnine

MBA in pussy licensing and rights management
This is a snowball on the Senate floor though right, we're still fucked?

Trying to work on my house and it's rained nearly every weekend for the last 2 months. And I'm in San Diego.
 
C

clearacell

Member
it's raining now in SoCal and has been quite a bit over the past month and a half. every time I go outside and see this I do a little fist pump in the air. I wasn't flushing toilets and taking many a sponge bath trying to do my part as much as I can, a little bit of stress relief from doing that kind of stuff less nowadays is very welcome.

though I hope conserving water and drought tolerant yards remain a thing.
 
S

studyguy

Member
clearacell said:
it's raining now in SoCal and has been quite a bit over the past month and a half. every time I go outside and see this I do a little fist pump in the air. I wasn't flushing toilets and taking many a sponge bath trying to do my part as much as I can, a little bit of stress relief from doing that kind of stuff less nowadays is very welcome.

though I hope conserving water and drought tolerant yards remain a thing.
Click to expand...

Most counties already have legislature in place to keep it that way. We'll be conserving and buildings have been made with conservation in mind. If our climate somehow returns to the more stable times for a bit, we'll still reap the benefits of drought-era changes.
 
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