Rains may be drowning drought

It is too soon to know whether the drought has been eradicated or simply diminished. But the rain that fell across the state this month has resulted in the state being able to substantially increase State Water Project allocations.

While this will have little effect on the Hill, it is an indication that water supplies are improving greatly throughout California.

On Jan. 26, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced it is able to increase water deliveries to its 29 public water agencies. With more water recently captured and stored in recent weeks, “DWR now expects to deliver 30% of requested water supplies — or 1.27 million acre-feet — in 2023, up from the initial 5% announced on December 1,” DWR said in its press release.

Thanks to the recent parade of atmospheric rivers and accompanying precipitation, reservoirs are continuing to fill.

“Given these dramatic swings, these storm flows are badly needed to refill groundwater basins and support recycled water plants,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth.

By spring, the final release numbers may be higher. Last week’s decision was only based on the current reservoir volume without any estimate of the eventual yield from the Sierra Nevada snowpack.

Water conditions on the Hill have continued to improve this week. Another winter storm arrived Sunday, bringing rain, wind and mountain snowfall to the region.

On Sunday, the National Weather Service forecast “Snow levels will begin at around 5,000 feet today, lowering to 4,000-4,500 feet on Monday, and to 3,000-3,500 by early Tuesday. Significant snow will impact the mountains along with gusty west winds up to 60 mph at the windiest desert slope locales. We continue to forecast 8 [inches-plus] for places such as Big Bear, Wrightwood, Idyllwild, Palomar Mountain and Mt Laguna.”

By Wednesday, this storm was to have passed, with drier and warmer weather returning through the end of the week. However, a possibility of another storm early next week is on the horizon.