songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:

...Jan 26...
today's report updated to

9,653,802af

...Feb 9...
and now they're up to 11,075,801 acre feet.

...Feb 25...

12,009,924 af. slowed down quite a bit the past
few weeks with very little wet weather, but they
still have a ways to go yet.

...Mar 7...

13,174,697 af (missing one reservoir)

....Mar 12...

14,004,806 af

cranking right along, storms still coming.

the storm yesterday made it to the south and the
day before they had a storm rain in the central part
for over a day and a half.


songbird

songbird wrote:
....
...Mar 7...

13,174,697 af (missing one reservoir)

...Mar 12...

14,004,806 af

note: this total is from Mar 10th report totals.
200 - 300 thousand af per day is such a huge amount
of water.


songbird

songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:
...
...Mar 7...

13,174,697 af (missing one reservoir)

...Mar 12...

14,004,806 af

....Mar 15...

15,620,430

most of the gains still in the north. the
south did get some rains, but they still need a lot
more. a break in the weather for a bit before the
storms return.


songbird

songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:
...
...Mar 7...

13,174,697 af (missing one reservoir)

...Mar 12...

14,004,806 af

...Mar 15...

15,620,430


....Apr 6...

17,147,962

things have calmed down quite a bit and the snow pack
has begun to shrink even more without new snows piling on
top.

more rains in the forecast, but i don't know how heavy
they will turn out to be. not enough in the central and
southern parts by far...

still hoping for more rain this rainy season, but they
are doing much better this year than last year.


songbird

songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:
...
...Mar 7...

13,174,697 af (missing one reservoir)

...Mar 12...

14,004,806 af

...Mar 15...

15,620,430


...Apr 6...

17,147,962

looks like it topped out sometime the past few weeks
at about 19maf, which put it at seasonal average of 90%.

still most of the water is far to the north of where
it was really needed. the central part of CA did get
some more rains and snows which did help a lot, but
still could have used a lot more. the southern part of
CA did not get much at all to help it break the drought.

the snow pack is rapidly melting off.

if the coming year is a La Nina year (dryer than
normal) then the drought will be back on for the
central part and the southern part will be even worse
than it currently is (which is hard to imagine).

from the other side Lake Powell and Lake Mead are
also on the low end of their historic averages. the
snow pack there was not too bad, it will be interesting
to see what level Lake Powell tops out at. they've
been keeping the upper reservoirs fairly full (that
feed into Lake Powell).


songbird

songbird wrote:

....about CA water storage/season...

this year is looking pretty good, if there
wasn't the situation with the Oroville Spillway
it would be great.

major reservoir levels are reading about:

Total Storage (AF) 22,656,646
Total Average Storage 20,567,895
Total % Group Average 110.16%


Snow pack is where it is at:

Statewide Average SWEQ 31"
Statewide Percent of April 1 110%
Statewide Percent of Normal 194%

especially considering that two short years ago
it was pretty much zero...


Heading over to the Colorado River basin (which
also supplies water to CA via aqueducts):

the river forecast is that there will be some
extra water for Lake Mead this year, not exactly
sure how much, but anything extra is a help with
it running lower. the more good news is that
there are expectations and hopes that less will
be used.

snow pack there is reported to also be in pretty
good shape. runoff is just now starting to get
into gear.


the overall picture is pretty good. the
drought is mostly considered over and another
bullet was dodged. this extra wet year will
buy them more time to upgrade and enhance the
ground water districts and to try to get a
better balance between pumping and recharge
rates. plenty of projects are going in to
help with this, but it does take time for them
to be put in. water recycling and desalinization
projects are also in the works.

and of course i'm always glad to see environmental
restoration and projects aimed at putting a more
natural water holding systems back in place (forests
and meadows upstream). just returning beavers to
an area can do a great deal for that.


songbird

songbird wrote:

....

the most recent update looks ok, but is
pretty much as expected after such a great
snowpack/runoff.

Total AF 23,169,139
Group Average 118.05%

only three reservoirs in the list not
doing that well, and one of them is the result
of the spillway break at Oroville (repairs
underway), the other two are in the far south
where the need is greatest. hopefully they
can be shored up this season from water shipped
south.

Lake Mead and Lake Powell are doing ok, but
the lack of spring rains meant about 1maf of
snow evaporated rather than contributed to
runoff. the inflows to Lake Powell peaked
a few weeks ago, but it is still rising very
slowly. probably will peak soon (around 66-67%
full).


songbird