California Drought

[troutsqueezer]

Keeping my fingers crossed the ol' well holds up through the Summer. This is a pic from a few years ago, taken in March from along my driveway in the CA foothills. The trees have leafed out in the early pic and it is not time yet for them to do so this year but still, the land turns bright green in November and so far, it looks like, well.... a drought.

 

[smstonypoint]

Keeping my fingers crossed the ol' well holds up through the Summer. This is a pic from a few years ago, taken in March from along my driveway in the CA foothills. The trees have leafed out in the early pic and it is not time yet for them to do so this year but still, the land turns bright green in November and so far, it looks like a, well.... a drought.

Oh my.

When did you last receive any appreciable rain?

Steve

 

[jerrybob]

Hope you, your family and property remain safe. I know it's very dry down there. My daughter lives in Glendora.....watched the foothills burn from her backyard last week. Luckily.....she and her neighbors were safe but lots of ash. Our friends live in Coursegold......very dry there as well. I hear the Sierra snowpack is really bad.......hope you get some snow and moisture. Good luck!!!

 

[Steppenwolfe]

That is shocking. Good luck to you. Nice web page, also.

 

[RobertN]

We're still carrying all of our wildfire gear on the Fire Engines. Numerous small fires within a 45 minute radius of Troutsqueezer and I(we are about 15 miles apart) over the last month.

We saw these conditions in '76/77. This year looks like it could get worse than that.

 

[creekbend]

We're still carrying all of our wildfire gear on the Fire Engines. Numerous small fires within a 45 minute radius of Troutsqueezer and I(we are about 15 miles apart) over the last month.

We saw these conditions in '76/77. This year looks like it could get worse than that.

I saw on the news where your state is the driest since California has been keeping records. Wishing you all the best.

 

[deezler]

Can't believe the Governor waited so long to announce any water restrictions. The writing has been on the wall for the last few months, at least. With ~10% of normal snowpack in the Sierras right now, this summer is going to be devastating.

 

[flusher]

This is the 3rd year of drought in the North Sacramento Valley. So far we've only had 2" total rainfall around here since 1 July last year. Normal rainfall is 18". Last year we had 15" total, just barely enough to get a dryland hay crop in (plant in early Nov, bale in early May). Extended forecast--no rain through April. We're in the middle of a Pacific Decadal Oscillation in which a high pressure area gets stalled off the coast and diverts the rainfall to the North into Washington and Canada. Oregon is also experiencing drought which is affecting hay deliveries to the CA customers (especially to the feed lots south of Stockton). My neighbor says that hay is coming in from as far away as Nebraska. Wonder what that costs.

My neighbor has irrigation water from the local water district (water comes in a canal from the Sacramento River via Shasta Lake) and has already irrigated his 8-acre hayfield (forage mix) three times this month. He's paying $41/acre foot now and expects that to at least double in the next 60 days. Irrigation water from the district will probably be rationed after that (like it was in 2009). The orchard farmers around here (olives, almonds, English walnuts, prune plums, mandarin oranges) will probably have to start pumping ground water when rationing starts. Hope that doesn't depress the water level too much (my well is 154 ft deep, water level is 90 feet below ground and the pump is 120 ft down--water comes from the 3rd strata).

Never a dull moment around here

 

[downsizingnow48]

Lake Mendocino at 37% capacity. Supplies farms ranches several good sized towns. Folks wondering why took so long to figure out we have a problem.

 

[charlz]

We are being affected as well, only 55% of normal snowpack for this time of year. They cut our irrigation water by 30% last year and it will likely be worse this year. Not sure it will even be worth trying to cut a hay crop if they cut our water more this year.