Hill water usage relatively constant in 2024 despite diminished rainfall

Rain and snow fell on the Hill last weekend and it was needed regardless of the inconveniences. This is the first significant precipitation since summer.

Idyllwild and Pine Cove received between 4 and 5 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service. Two years ago, more than 24 inches of rain and snow had fallen on the Hill.

The last half of 2024 was one of the driest six months on record, not only on the Hill but throughout Southern California. This was a major contributor to the devastating wildfires last month in the Los Angeles basin. Certainly, this precipitation will reduce wildfire threat somewhat but not eliminate it. And so far, it was noticeably less than the past two winters.

“This will without doubt lower the probabilities of ignition and greatly lessen the chance of fire consuming large amounts of acreage,” said Mark LaMont, Chief of the Idyllwild Fire Department in an text to the Town Crier.

The California Department of Water Resources completed is second snowpack survey of the winter season and the results were disappointing despite the rainfall Northern California received this fall.

“The manual survey recorded 22.5 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent of 8 inches, which is 46 percent of average for this location. . . Statewide, the snowpack is 65 percent of average for this date,” DWR reported in its Jan. 31 press release.

The National Weather Service forecast for this week is a slight chance of rain from Tuesday evening through Friday. At this time, the NWS models are not predicting a high probability of more precipitation, yet.

Dr. Daniel Swain, meteorologist and climate scientist at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, opined on Weather West, his website, on Jan. 31, the dramatic difference in precipitation between Northern and Southern California is likely to continue through spring.

“Odds favor continued near to above average precipitation across the northern third of California and below average precipitation across the southern third (perhaps well below average),” he wrote.

A major consequence of the lack of rain is that significant drought conditions have returned to Southern California, including Riverside County.

While none of the State is in category 4 (an Exceptional Drought), Extreme Drought conditions have returned to most of Southern California – Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties. Also portions of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties are incurring Extreme Drought. Only one-third of the State is free of any drought conditions.

According to the U.S. Drought monitor, 11.9 % of the State is now in Extreme Drought. It hasn’t been that high since January 2023. Further, Extreme conditions began to appear in November, but never exceeded 1 % until Jan. 21, when the calculation was nearly 12 %.

Despite the absence of precipitation until last week, none of the Hill water districts have needed to declare any water emergency stages. Although that may depend upon the amount of late winter and spring rain.

Water usage on the Hill has been conservative. Idyllwild Water District, the largest of the three, produced 96.9 million gallons in 2024. That was an increase of 2.3 million gallons or only 2.4 %, which General Manager Bill Rojas attributed to greater commercial customer use as the visitation to the Hill continued to return to pre-COVID levels.

IWD’s 2024 production was about 8.9 % greater than its ten-year average. Rojas thought this was also largely due to greater commercial production since 2014.

Pine Cove Water District produced 32.4 million gallons of water in 2024. This was 2.7 % less than its 2023 production and 7.3 % less than the District’s ten-year average production of 34.9 million gallons. Jeremy Potter, PCWD’s general manager, said, “Conservation and early leak detection” were the principal reasons for the decline both in the past year and longer term.

Conservation and new meters will help the PCWD maintain a consistent level of production, he added.

Fern Valley had less than 1 % increase in 2024 production, barely any increase in production. The 35.9 million gallons were only 3.7 % greater than the FVWD’s ten-year average. General Manager Victor Jimenez said in an email to the Town Crier, “I think it is due to changes up here from Covid, a lot of properties changed hands.”

Hill water customers seem quite aware of the local water conditions. PCWD is not the only District that benefits from conservation. Rojas noted, “The majority of our customers do conserve water when asked or posted as we get into the dryer summer months.”

Both FVWD and IWD rely on stream flow and wells for water supply, while PCWD is dependent on wells alone. Jimenez mentioned that the streams are currently flowing very well given the lack of rain

“The creeks are a definite benefit as they have been running year-round for us, reducing the need for ground water therefore alleviating demands on the wells and water available from the wells,” he said.

While the 2025 spring and summer water status is unknown now, all three general managers stated that their maximum production was significantly greater than the long-term average. While conservation may be needed, no one expects a water or drought disaster on the Hill.

Production in million gallons 10-year %

District 2024 2023 Change average difference

Fern Valley 35.9 35.9 0.11% 34.6 3.70%

Idyllwild 96.9 94.6 2.44% 89.0 8.86%

Pine Cove 32.4 33.2 -2.66% 34.9 -7.34%