Wet Winter Produces Record-Breaking Runoff

Thanks to recent months that saw plenty of rainfall, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is currently holding 1.9 million acre feet of water content – and that’s after the month of April produced nearly a 100 percent increase in acre feet of runoff from April of last year. The snow is expected to continue melting at high volumes, making the 2016-2017 water year the highest runoff year on record. The main months that see snow melt are April, May, June and July, according to Turlock Irrigation District utility analyst Jason Carkeet, but right now – the end of May – to around mid-June is when peak snow melt numbers occur.