Soggy beginning to new ‘Water Year’

Dust off your rain gauges.
The new “water year” began Oct. 1, and more than inch of rain was forecast for all of this weekend.
That’s good news for firefighters and gardeners, and bad news for Scotts Valley’s homecoming weekend.
The water year that just ended saw reservoirs and aquifers slowly replenish. Loch Lomond in the Santa Cruz Mountains was above capacity and reopened to visitors and fishing enthusiasts.
The El Nino did not end the drought, but brought near-average precipitation – about 50 inches for the mountain communities.
Going into the new water year, California remains in a drought.
The California Department of Water Resources Major reported that reservoirs in California began this new water year with below average levels. While groundwater is likely to be recovering in much of Northern California, soil moisture in much of the Sierras and Central California remains in drought conditions. Like groundwater, conditions of forests are severely depressed and are likely to see substantial drought impacts for years.
Many reservoirs are in pretty good shape in terms of overall storage, the department reported this week.
No agency has issued any forecasts for rainfall this winter, but the present drought is occurring at a time of record warmth in California. Since 1950 has been warmer across the U.S. Southwest (including California and the Colorado River Basin) than in any comparable period in at least 600 years.
“While it is not possible to accurately say whether water year 2017 will be wet or dry, we can expect that on average future droughts will become increasingly challenging due to the expected warmer temperatures,” the department concluded.