There has been a significant amount of rainfall over the past three months. The snowpack in the Sierras is growing and growing and Napa, Sonoma, Paso and Santa Bsrbara are getting rain and more rain. Hopefully this enough for the Ag business, including wine, to prevent signifycant damage.
Great news. Very curious to watch 2016 unfold in California.
Do you think well see the day when CA starts planting north facing vineyards because of the warming? I know some BdM producers blend north facing fruit with their other fruit already.
Forecast is one major storm after another end of month. Right now it is raining Santa Barbara northward. Paso is forecast for rain every day for next week.
It is unfortunate that although rain is much needed, it often comes in a torrential and sometimes damaging scenario. Glad to see SB and Paso getting some rain!
Sonoma County rainfall is still behind last year at this time by about 30% but last year it stopped raining in December. Forecast looks favorable, Russian River is high and muddy and Sierra snowpack is 137% of normal. The drought will not end though according to the Sonoma County Water District even if we get above average rainfall for the next 5 years. It’s a business after all.
Won’t make a dent in the drought though. Would take a solid year of doing this.
Every storm is a dent. May take a while to smooth the dent out but believing that each inch of rain does not matter is speaking like a water agency wanting to ensure their rate increases never drop.
Since all my water for vineyard, yard, and home use comes from a single well, I have to tell you this is a god-send. Water going down deep into the soil to feed the trees and hedges and flowering plants; water soaking the soil that the vines will awaken to in the spring. Filling the well resources, and keeping the holding tank full. This means a lot for people who live like I do. I have no option for city or county water and that is just fine with me.
We just hit 24in of rain for the season. We get around 55in in an average season.
So far it has been lots of moderate rain events that have allow the ground to soak up all the water. Runoff has been fairly light. So far so good.
Some rain down here in SB County, but not as much as those North and South of us. We’ll take it though, along with the coolish weather. The last thing we need is to warm back up and get an earlier bud break. Most vineyards have not been pruned as of yet, and most are going to hold off as long as possible. Last year, we saw green growth BEFORE pruning - hoping not to have a repeat of that!
And by the way, it is NOT currently raining here in the Valley - come on up!!!
Cheers!
Like I said upstream several large storms heading our way.
When I flew over the Sierras a week ago, they looked blessedly white.
Sierra snowpack was running around 120% of normal before the last few storms. Lake Tahoe’s level has risen thanks to about 4 billion gallons of new water.
Our t bins out back are full, starting Nov. 1. For those who don’t know that means we are well over 40 inches of rain in two months, with snow piling like crazy above 4000 ft.
Gotta keep perspective though. Californians use about 38 billion gallons per day (2010 data - 2010 California Water Use Data | USGS)
Strange in Marin County.
Last year we had 28 inches of rain in December - and then no more, all season. This year, YTD we are at 7.13 inches according to my gauge. We average 25 inches.
There is snow at altitudes that are so low I can’t believe.
I cancelled the kids ski day today because of too much snow/storms (!)
Although it sounds odd, getting to the ski areas can be a pain when its like this.
Chain controls all last week. And if not, then the roads are jammed.
Still we can hope for another vintage of the century next summer.
If this El Niño is like others I have been through we could be seeing one stir m system after another though almost spring.
The off again, on again, rain, is much better in helping to mitigate the drought than say 25 inches of rain in Marin County in one month. Pretty much means not much watering of residential home nor use of irrigation water for many months while the snowpack becomes larger and water tables slowly rise.
Last year we had zero rain in January. This year is much different, but as Brian said, we are behind last year’s rate because there was so much rain in December. The forecast is for more rain this week, which is great!
Thanks,
Ed