SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
The U.S. Drought Monitor shows parts of California dipping back into bigger drought conditions. This is after weeks of no changes being marked for California.
The northwest coast is now back into the extreme drought category with precipitation deficits growing.
After a huge start to what is typically the wettest time of year for the state, the precipitation pipeline shut down in January and it never regained strength through February. And now the window is closing on the rainy season, the tail end delivering very little rain and snow.
The gains from big storms in October and December have now dried up and many places are seeing below normal precipitation totals.
The snowpack has dropped to about 60-70% of normal for the Sierra which provides a third of the water to the state during the dry season. During the spring the snow melts and runs downhill to fill area reservoirs to provide water to the state.
Some releases are happening right now as part of regulations set forth by flood control and environmental rules. Due to maintenance on a power plant, the Bureau of Reclamation says the water is being diverted from those plants to the Folsom Auxiliary spillway and the Nimbus Dam.
Folsom Reservoir is still above average for this time of year, but many of the other major reservoirs are below average and have plenty of capacity for incoming snowmelt.
Apr. 1 has traditionally been the point when snowfall transitions to snowmelt. Last year, warm temperatures led to big evaporation rates and less water coming from the Sierra snowpack, so there’s still some uncertainty about how much water will actually make it into area reservoirs.
The next snow survey conducted by the California Department of Water Resources is Tuesday, Mar. 1 which will give another marker for how the state is doing for water content heading toward the dry time of year.
