Experts Weigh In On Water Year
March 15, 2016 A wet January was a welcome change for California, but February, unfortunately, didn’t follow suit. Precipitation was slightly below average.
March, on the other hand, is shaping up quite nicely, according to Jay Lund, Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Davis.
“We had a couple of big storms come in early in March, and now we’re maybe a little bit above average for this time of year in terms of precipitation,” he says.
While things do seem to be improving, Lund is quick to note that California still has about 5.5 million acre-feet less surface water storage than average for this time of year – a lingering effect of the drought that isn’t likely to go away anytime soon.
With additional rainfall this month, Lund says we might be able to expect an average year in terms of precipitation and an almost average snowpack, although we’ll know much more in April.
“We’re probably still going to have some empty reservoir space that, on average, would have water in it, and we’ll still have a fair bit of leftover empty groundwater space,” he says.
Richard Howitt, UC Davis Agricultural and Resource Economics Professor Emeritus, says he expects allocation of water to continue to be an issue for agricultural producers this year. The situation could be especially tough for almond and walnut growers, who are already dealing with declining crop values.
“It’s going to be a little harder to weather, because the prices are not as good as they were the past couple years,” he says. “So they’re going to have increased costs and lower prices.”
Still, agricultural producers might be able to breathe somewhat of a sigh of relief.
“I think there will be some shortages, but I suspect they’re not going to be as bad as the last couple of years,” Lund says.
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