yay California!

finally getting some decent rains and seeing some positive inflows into the reservoirs the past few weeks.

this last rain that went through dropped enough snow and rain to make a nice bump up for most of the lowest reservoirs.

Folsom picked up 34,471 AF of water from yesterday's reading (that's 11,232,409,821 gallons of water) as they were rather low to begin with that's a great relief. Mc Clure gained 8,688 AF giving it a 2% bump from the low of 6% to 8%. they were close to sucking air there with only 60,000 AF not too long ago, now back to close to

80,000 AF gives the people relying upon it for drinking water a welcome breath of relief.

songbird

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songbird
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continued good news for CA as the storms have kept layering in, not too horrible yet in most places with some days in between where the ground can soak it up.

for the first time in a long time the reading on the page i follow has reached over 8maf for the collection of reserviors (i didn't note the bottom, but i'd guess they've picked up about 600-

800 thousand af).

snowpack looks like it is off to a good start too, for much of the west that will be a big help, now if the trend can continue...

songbird

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songbird

songbird wrote: ...

today's report updated to

9,653,802af

not bad, drink up mother earth!

songbird

Reply to
songbird

...Jan 26...

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

still too much of it in the north and not enough in the south, but much better than they were a few weeks ago.

the snow pack is also above or near average.

the operators at Folsom are now talking of having to let some of the water out because Folsom reservoir's primary purpose is flood control and they are close to that limit.

El Nino is gradually shifting north and is hoped to start making some storms for southern CA in a week or two... we shall see and continue to hope so.

songbird

Reply to
songbird

...and then the mudslides and/or debris-flows will start. Never a dull moment. Locally, we are actually having snow (a little) and frigid weather in February. Which is only odd because we were having spring last weekend, complete with a flowering snowdrop and plenty of mud. I presume Fran is having what, mid-late summer?

Reply to
Ecnerwal

not in such a place with their soils and climate.

so much could be done if people wanted to do the work.

yeah, we had a warmer spell too, but i'm glad it has returned to cold so that the trees don't flower too early. it's going to be minus F for several nights if the forecast holds.

getting towards the equinox. it's nice to have the days getting longer again.

songbird

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songbird

Brr! Going to be upwards of 70F here today. I could not live where it gets that cold. I'm hoping climate change turns us into a desert.

Reply to
George Shirley

...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.

the El Nino shift has happened only once and then it looks like it has shifted back again. a few more weeks? dunno...

the Folsom reservoir is spilling water because it does need to be used for flood control. this is not a bad thing because that increases water flows to the delta and that means they can pump more water from there further south or in the intermediate reservoirs. so not all of that water is actually wasted. and i'm sure the fishies and other river and delta creatures appreciate it too.

the snow pack is now below average, but still much better than what they've had for a while. just hope they get a few more good storms before the season ends. months away yet.

in other areas the upper Colorado River snow pack isn't bad, but the southern part may be a bit grim. more storms will help there too...

songbird

Reply to
songbird

I just checked the jet steam:

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There is a tiny low pressure (counter clockwise swirly), but is really weak and may only affect British Columbia.

It may be a few weeks before anything wet happens.

Reply to
T

T wrote: ...

looked like some rain/snow went through yesterday and the day before. there are the CA water websites i use for that and the regional radars. if you want links i'll post 'em. :)

i also check GEOS water vapor loop when i think of it and want to see what is possible:

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right now the pattern has shifted again to where the moisture is coming from the NW and not the SW, but for a while a few weeks ago the pattern had shifted to where some storms were being driven by moisture coming from the SW. i hope it shifts again and they get some decent rains before the snow season is up.

songbird

Reply to
songbird

Hi Songbird,

I look at the water vapor over on

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I haven't found it very helpful as far as rain goes. The infrared (also on that web site) is a lot more helpful. The vapor is a good indication of the relative humidity. Great to know during Fire Season. Nevada has two seasons: winter and fire season. (Fishing season is all year, so it doesn't count.)

There should be a tag team of Maritime Tropical and Maritime Polar storms coming through. Seems like we have been missing the Polar one lately (too far north). And the Tropical seems to be AWOL lately. It is typical in the summer for these two guys to separate so much that there is no rain at all for months.

The Jet Stream is a complete hoot to watch. The high and low pressures are a give away. This is why the Vapor isn't really helpful. It does not show the moist warm air (low pressure, counter clock wise rotation) rising over cold descending air (high pressure, clock wise rotation), which triggers the rain.

In the summer, you can predict thunderstorm by watching a low pressure on the jet stream off Southern PRC (People's Republic of California) suck water off the ocean and rotate it over southern Nevada and Utah, then bang it up again the back side of the Sierra's and storm like hell. Our thunderstorm are the most fascinating drama you can imagine.

The weather has fascinated me since college. My wife says I am better than the weathermen on the TV. (No big leap. They are too ignorant/arrogant to actually look at NOAA's weather side and see for themselves, which is what happens when your are hired for your looks.)

-T

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T

Weather service is saying there is a chance of rain on Saturday. That could easily change by then

Reply to
T

yeah, i tend to not count things until they arrive as we are in a valley where storms tend to break up before they get here in the summer.

i was glad to see that they are forecasting significant rains for CA for this weekend and so on, but again, we'll have to be patient to see what actually happens.

a few more inches of rain in the central and southern parts of the state would be really good as those reservoirs are the ones most depleted right now. the northern reservoirs have come back nicely.

some of the news outlets have been complaining about the results of the El Nino so far and the various predictions, but to me each El Nino is still rare enough that we have a lot to keep learning.

songbird

Reply to
songbird

NOAA is saying Saturday pretty solid now.

Reply to
T

It just started raining. The weather radar show a lot of energy bearing down on us (Norther Nevada)

Reply to
T

T wrote: ...

just glad to see any rain out there at all. especially heading towards middle and southern CA.

you have things set up on your property to catch all the rain so it doesn't run off?

songbird

Reply to
songbird

I have about 100 years or more to catch up with your skills. :'(

I would just like to grow zucchini!

Reply to
T

Yesterday's storm was rather "warm" as storms go (maritime tropical).

The temperature is dropping like a rock. Looks like a Maritime Polar is on its way! (I can't help myself, I do so love snow!)

So it seems like we are back to tag team.

A few years back, we had monster Maritime Polar come through and dump a ton of snow. Then it got tagged with a really warm Maritime Tropical with a snow level of about 11,000 feet. It melted all the snow from the previous storm. The effect was two huge storms a once. Tons of flooding.

It is much better for the first storm to be a Tropical.

Reply to
T

...Mar 7...

13,174,697 af (missing one reservoir)

this is not counting today's storms so things will pop nicely from that over the next few days/weeks with more still in the forecast.

songbird

Reply to
songbird

I wish we could send y'all some rain, we're expecting heavy rains today and for the next several days. I hope it is not like last years spring rain where we got 18 inches in three days. Heavily overcast out there as I just went out to check the gardens. We've mostly got our spring garden planted with minor exceptions.

I'm getting up earlier nowadays since the doctor took me off another heart med and cut one from three pills a day to half a pill morning and evening. Also sleeping better since I'm taking a 10 mg Melatonin tablet at bedtime.

George

Reply to
George Shirley

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