While the drought has parched California and much of the West during the past four years, recent storm systems have brought much-needed moisture to these areas with further relief possible in the weeks and months ahead.
The pattern of rain during October may be the ideal solution: small doses of moisture over time, rather than an enormous amount coming all at once. In the western United States, snowfall plays a much larger role in maintaining water supply than it does in other parts of the nation because, specifically, much of Southern California is desert land surrounded by mountains. Spring snowmelt is crucial to replenishing local water supplies; however, the combination of below-average rainfall and significantly below-average snowfall has allowed the drought to worsen.
But there are signs of change with the expected El Nino and torrents of rainfall this winter. The snowpack usually reaches a peak in early spring in the Sierra Nevada Mountains; in April this year the snow-water content was at an all-time low, just 5 percent of average or 95-percent below average. This has been a trend since the winter of 2011-12, when California saw far less snow each season to melt in the spring and replenish reservoirs.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this week that a recent change in the jet stream pattern is allowing for cold air to flow down to much of the western United States and this has quickly changed the pattern from unseasonable warmth to near- and even below-average temperatures in some locales. That’s why residents saw snow this week at Mammouth Mountain and the other ski resorts in the San Bernardino Mountains. Snow-water levels are already running considerably above average across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and although it is still early in the season, the amount of snow that could eventually melt into adjoining tributaries may mean that the low water levels in the state’s reservoirs will begin to return to normal.
Since the drought is not entirely finished, water delivery companies have been making a killing of late, said officials. The California Department of Water Resources said more people are relying primarily on water delivery. Most of the time the deliveries are made to rural customers because wells have run dry since the streambeds that once flowed nonstop are at all-time low levels.
And the situation is not just in California. One Nevada water company is seeing a booming business as a result of the drought. Garret McInnis with “H20 to Go” began his company in 2010 and since then has been busy practically every day providing customers with fresh water.
“When people see my truck, they may think I’m one of those people stealing water,” he said. “You can imagine how it is to be out of water. Can’t flush the toilet. Can’t take a shower. We simply assume that there will always be enough water to go around, until one day you don’t have any.”
His customers have found that the cost for water adds up quickly during prolonged dry spells.
“You find out everytime you flush the toilet there’s 50 cents down the drain,” McInnis said. “So you begin to realize that it’s something you once took for granted and now you have to be more conscientious about water use.”
