Posted on February 28, 2015 by jaylund
By Jay Lund
Droughts are strange, and this one is becoming scarier.
February began with a nice few stormy days, but has since looked like this January – very dry. And so far, the March forecast is not wet.
At the beginning of March, the Northern Sierra (Sacramento Valley) Precipitation Index was down to 88% of average to date, although it already almost equals total precipitation for all of 2014 (both good and bad news). For the San Joaquin Valley and Tulare basin (where most water use occurs), precipitation is about half of average for this date – slightly wetter than this time last year. Snowpack is roughly like last year – among the driest on record.