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<p>wrolley@charter.net sent you this article.</p><br />
<p><b><u>Comment: </u></b></p><p>Paul Rogers has a good analysis on the impact that the current rain storms are having on the CA Drought. He will also be on KQED Forum at 10:00 this AM. </p><br />
<p></p><br />
<p>The Mercury News <br/> 01/04/2017 - Page A01</p><br />
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<p id="articleAds_top" style="display:none;"></p><h3><span style="font-weight:bold;"> ‘Cautiously</span><span style="font-weight:bold;"> optimistic’</span></h3><h2><span style="font-weight:bold;"> A DENT IN THE DROUGHT </span></h2><h3><span style="font-weight:bold;"> Wet relief:</span><span style="font-style:italic;"> State’s five-year dry spell beginning to show signs of letting up</span><span style="font-weight:bold;"> Stormy week:</span><span style="font-style:italic;"> Bay Area can expect heavy rainfall; Sierra to get blanketed</span></h3><p class="abody"><span style="font-weight:bold;"> By Paul Rogers</span></p><p class="abody"><span style="font-style:italic;"> progers@bayareanewsgroup.com</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_5"> A series of powerful storms is set to soak California over the next week, bringing heavy rains, flooding risk in some creeks and 10 feet or more of new snow to the Sierra Nevada — the latest sign that the stranglehold of the stat
e’s five-year drought is significantly weakening.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_5"> At least three storms are forecast to crash in from the Pacific Ocean, weather forecasters said Tuesday, dumping 3 to 4 inches of rain on most Bay Area cities by next Monday, and 8 to 10 inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Marin hills and Big Sur coast. Friday may provide one dry day, but otherwise, every day this week should be wet, with the hardest rain on Saturday, forecasters said.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_5"> "It’s not a lot of little storms," said Jan Null, a meteorologist</span><pagejump></pagejump></p><p id="articleAds_mid" style="display:none;"></p>
<br><img src="http://mercurynews.ca.newsmemory.com/newsmemvol2/california/mercurynews/20170104/0104111xa001_w-or9.pdf.0/img/Image_0.jpg" onload="" width="460" height="329"><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_27"> Pedestrians toting umbrellas will be a common sight this week in Berkeley, above, and throughout the rest of the Bay Area.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> KRISTOPHER</span><span class="Fid_0"> SKINNER/STAFF</span></p><p id="articleAds_bot" style="display:none;"></p>
<br><hr><p id="articleAds_top" style="display:none;"></p><pagejump></pagejump><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> with Golden Gate Weather Services in Saratoga. "These are significant rain producers."</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> Steady rains since October, combined with nearnormal rainfall last winter, have all but ended the drought in some Northern California areas, particularly on the coast.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> As of last Thursday, 58 percent of California was classified as being in "severe drought," down from 88 percent a year ago, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Nebraska.</span></p><p class="abody"><span style="font-weight:bold;"> Two Californias</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> Much of Northern California, including San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin and ever
y coastal county to the Oregon border, along with northern Santa Clara and northern Santa Cruz counties, are no longer classified as being in drought conditions at all for the first time in four years, according to the Drought Monitor, which analyzes precipitation, soil moisture and other factors.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> But other parts of California, notably Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and the southern San Joaquin Valley, which have not seen consistent rain in recent years, are still classified as being in exceptional</span><span class="Fid_0"> or extreme drought.</span><span class="Fid_0"> How stark is the difference? All seven reservoirs owned by the Marin Municipal Water District were full to the top Tuesday. But 350 miles to the south, Lake Cachuma, a primary source of water for the city of Santa Barbara, was only 8 percent full. On Jan. 1, the Santa Barbara City Council imposed a ban on all lawn watering to conserve dwindling s
upplies, even after residents cut water use 35 percent last year. Construction to reopen Santa Barbara’s ocean desalination plant, which closed 25 years ago after the last severe drought ended and its water costs were too high, is set to be complete by March, which will help boost the city’s perilous water outlook.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> The northern part of the state is in much better</span><span class="Fid_0"> shape.</span><span class="Fid_0"> As of Tuesday afternoon, San Francisco was at 102 percent of the historic average rainfall for this date, with Sacramento at 150 percent, Eureka at 163 and Oakland at 110 percent. San Jose was still at 84 percent, after missing some of the big October storm action. On Tuesday, the heaviest rains were in the North Bay, where many communities received an inch or more. Parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains received up to 2</span><span class="Fid_0"> inches.</span><span class="Fid_0"> All the rain has booste
d reservoir levels. The 154 reservoirs tracked by the State Department of Water</span><span class="Fid_0"> Resources held 21.5 million acre-feet of water at the end of December — 98 percent of their historic average for Dec. 31.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> "Precipitation and storage are doing quite well compared to the past five years of historic drought conditions," said Bill Croyle, acting director of the state Department of Water Resources. "That makes us cautiously optimistic about water conditions, although some areas in California are still hit hard by the drought and require a response."</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> The turnaround from a year ago is breathtaking. Lake Shasta, California’s biggest reservoir, near Redding, is at 118 percent of its historic average, up from 50 percent this time last year. And Lake Oroville in Butte County, the second largest in the state, is at 91 percent of historic capacity, up from 47 pe
rcent a year ago.</span></p><p class="abody"><span style="font-weight:bold;"> Brown’s glass half full</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> Because of the significantly different conditions around the state, the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to ease drought rules in the next two weeks, releasing new rules that will assign a water conservation target to each city, water company and water district, based on the amount of rainfall it has received, along with other</span><span class="Fid_0"> factors, such as groundwater and reservoir levels.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> "We’re seeing vast improvement in water supply conditions over much of the state this winter," said Max Gomberg, a climate and conservation manager for the state Water Resources Control Board. "It’s a really promising sign of recovery from this drought. However, there are parts of the state that are still feeling the effects of the drought, and are still
short of water."</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> Gomberg said that it’s likely the new rules, which the state water board is scheduled to vote on Feb. 7, will permanently lock in some conservation measures that grew out of the drought. Those likely will include a requirement that the 410 largest cities, water companies and water districts in California continue to publicly report their water use to the state every month, and that wasteful water practices, such as hosing down sidewalks or washing cars without nozzles on the hose, are permanently banned.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> Some cities with ample water supplies will have no numerical conservation target from the state, he said,</span><span class="Fid_0"> while others in drier areas will.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> This week’s rainy weather is already affecting the Sierra Nevada, where the snowpack makes up about one-third of California’s water sup
ply.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> Between Sunday and Tuesday afternoon, 3 feet of new snow fell at Squaw Valley ski area near Lake Tahoe, and 2 feet had blanketed the ground at Sugar Bowl and Heavenly resorts.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> State officials held their first manual snow survey of the year on Tuesday. And although the snowpack in the Sierra totaled just 70 percent of the historic average for Jan. 3 — due to warm storms in weeks past — those totals are expected to jump significantly in the days ahead as the new storms dump up to 4 feet of snow by Thursday at higher elevations and perhaps 5 more feet over the weekend.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_0"> "It’s early days. We still have three really solid months of winter remaining and a wet prognosis for at least a week," said Frank Gehrke, chief of snow surveys for the California Department of Water Resources.</span></p><p class="abody"><span style="fon
t-style:italic;"> Staff writer Mark Gomez contributed to this report. Contact Paul Rogers at 408-920-5045.</span></p><p id="articleAds_mid" style="display:none;"></p>
<br><img src="http://mercurynews.ca.newsmemory.com/newsmemvol2/california/mercurynews/20170104/../../eastbaytimes/20170104/0104001xa009_w-or9.pdf.0/img/Image_1.jpg" onload="" width="356" height="279"><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_6"> Frank Gehrke, right, of the Department of Water Resources, checks the snowpack with John Paasche during the first manual snow survey of the season at Echo Summit.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_7"> RICH PEDRONCELLI/ASSOCIATED PRESS</span></p><p id="articleAds_mid" style="display:none;"></p>
<br><img src="http://mercurynews.ca.newsmemory.com/newsmemvol2/california/mercurynews/20170104/../../eastbaytimes/20170104/0104001xa009_w-or9.pdf.0/img/Image_0.jpg" onload="" width="357" height="240"><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_6"> Josue Ruiz, of Monterey, tries to stay warm and dry at the San Jose Diridon Transit Center.</span></p><p class="abody"><span class="Fid_7"> GARY REYES/STAFF</span></p><p id="articleAds_bot" style="display:none;"></p>
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