We Got a Lot of Rain in May...Where Does This Leave Us?

After a brutally dry winter, May finally brought some welcome precipitation to the region. Now, where exactly does this leave us? Is the drought over? In a word, No. Does the recent rain and high elevation snow help? Most definitely! The rain did bring a bit of a recharge to area lakes, rivers, and reservoirs, but the relief is unfortunately short-lived. What we really need is a deep snowpack to slowly replenish water storage...of course with it being nearly June, we are out of time this season.

So, how did May 2015 stack up across California and Nevada...see for yourself below:



The greatest departures from average were through Mono County due to a snowfall event on May 8 which brought over a foot of snow (and liquid equivalents of 1-2 inches) to many locations. Here are some incredible photos and snow totals from the event:


June Lake - Photo Courtesy of Michael Cohen

McGee RV Park Across from Crowley Lake - Photo Courtesy of Anna Maier
After starting the month with a few of these winter-like systems, we transitioned to more showers and thunderstorms. This made the rainfall totals very hit or miss, with some places getting significant rainfall totals and others not nearly as much. Overall, totals for the month across the region ranged from a quarter inch upwards over 5 inches.

Now the big question...where does this leave us in terms of the drought? Well, we have had such a large deficit the past several winters that, to be honest, this is only a blip on the radar. Picture dropping a cup of water in a 5 gallon bucket - that leaves a lot of empty bucket still! Here is how many years worth of annual rainfall would be needed to even reach what is considered normal:


Of course, there remains one other big question...what about fire season? Well, this just delayed it, and in theory could actually make it worse. With the recent rains and now warmth, it will allow grasses and fine fuels to grow. These will then dry out in the summer heat, creating a new bed of fuels that can burn. The larger fuels - such as timber in the Sierra - are all quite dry already due to the past 4 years of drought. The rains have delayed their ability to burn, but these too will dry out again. A large number of wildfires are human caused, so make sure to do your part to help lower the risk of fire starts.

We'll have to see what winter of 2015-2016 brings us, but lets hope that it's a large Sierra snow pack!

The incredible winter of 2010-2011 (Look at the speed limit sign!)


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