You might as well stick your umbrella in the closet. San Diego County is unlikely to receive rain for the next 10 days, and daytime high temperatures will be above normal, says the National Weather Service.
Large high-pressure systems are blocking seasonal storms from the Gulf of Alaska and Canada from dropping into Southern California.
A water district drawing down water from its own reservoir should not be controversial. It should be expected. That is, quite literally, what reservoirs are built for: to store water in wet times and use it wisely when conditions allow.
Yet in recent weeks, after one of the wettest Novembers in recent memory, Sweetwater Authority’s transfer of water from Loveland Reservoir to Sweetwater Reservoir has generated debate. That debate misses the larger point.
Patti and Don Boone are native San Diegans. Don grew up in Point Loma, the neighborhood where they raised their daughter Kim. After Patti’s mom passed away, the couple, now retired, decided to leave Point Loma to move into the Chula Vista home where Patti was raised. Patti had been a receptionist at a downtown San Diego law firm, while Don was a carpenter with Kaiser Permanente’s engineering department.
About 10 years in, during the fall of 2022, they decided it was time to change up the front yard from the longtime lawn. Kim, now an adaptive physical education teacher, and her husband, Parker Richardson, a biologist and restoration ecologist, encouraged her parents to install a native garden. They also played a large role in helping select the plants and put in the garden. It truly was a family project that took about six months.
Three years into construction, the massive East County Advanced Water Purification Program is approaching the finish line late next year when the region’s sewage now being treated at Point Loma will be pumped to a new Santee plant and converted to drinkable, purified water.
Last month, the four-person board that oversees the more than $1 billion AWP project approved a $34 million allocation for another phase of Package 5 of the project that broke ground in mid-2022. There are five packages for the AWP that is a collaboration among four agencies—Padre Dam Municipal Water District, San Diego County, the city of El Cajon, and Helix Water District.
Residents who frequent Loveland Reservoir are again raising alarms about water being drained from the area’s largest public open-space reservoir. The concerns come three years after the reservoir was lowered to deadpool levels, killing off the fish population and severely impacting recreation.
Now, locals fear the reservoir may be headed down the same path.
At its Nov. 20 meeting, the Santa Fe Irrigation District Board of Directors unanimously approved rate increases for its potable and recycled customers that will take effect at the start of the new year, Jan. 1, 2026.
Customers will receive a notification by mail with more details about the impact on their bills and when they can expect the increase to be reflected in their statements, according to a district news release.
The latest storm hitting the region is helping bring San Diego County’s reservoirs back toward healthier levels.
“The average is very high for November. Last year, we had less than a quarter of an inch and this year we’re getting almost above three inches in San Diego County,” said Efren Lopez, Senior Water Resources Specialist with San Diego County Water Authority.
A feared hike in water costs for local farmers won’t be as bad as first expected following a reversal from the San Diego County Water Authority.
Water officials have bailed on earlier plans to sharply reduce a special water-rate discount enjoyed by many San Diego-area farmers — a discount the agricultural sector sees as a key policy keeping their struggling industry afloat.
Forecasts for San Diego County on Thursday called for yet another storm, albeit weaker, to hit the area, bringing more wet weather.
“The next low-pressure system from the northwest will bring more widespread showers late Thursday afternoon into Friday,” said the National Weather Service.
The storm that darted through the region Monday night and early Tuesday pushed San Diego’s seasonal rainfall roughly three times above average, and another storm will arrive Thursday, the National Weather Service said.
San Diego International Airport has recorded 2.93 inches of precipitation since the rainy season began on Oct. 1. The average for that period is 0.88 inches.
