In the dry, desert air of Las Vegas, it seems strange to be talking about a plentiful source of water all around us. Southern Nevada is in the grip of one of the worst droughts it has experienced in recorded history, leading to water shortages and restrictions on use.
Residents of the Sacramento area have been on a meteorological seesaw this past week: After 212 days without rain, the area saw precipitation again — which, this weekend, turned into an all-out rainstorm.
Already, the rainfall this weekend broke records: The area got more than half of the rain it had all of the last wet season, which was particularly dry, in a single storm.
In a year of both extreme heat and extreme drought, California has reported its driest water year in terms of precipitation in a century, and experts fear the coming 12 months could be even worse.
The Western Regional Climate Center added average precipitation that had been reported at each of its stations and calculated that a total of 11.87 inches of rain and snow fell in California in the 2021 water year. That’s half of what experts deem average during a water year in California: about 23.58 inches.
Get ready for a lot of chatter this week about Colorado’s weather, especially on social media. Computer forecast models show the potential for a high-impact winter storm moving into the state sometime after Wednesday. As we see it now this storm could drop a large amount of moisture and it could be mostly in the form of snow, so it is something you will want to pay close attention to this week.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
