Rain Reign

Those of you closely following the narrative of rain on the North Coast must be pining for an update, yes?  Considering how active, extreme--and actively tragic--the weather has been in other parts of the country and the world, this seems a bit self-indulgent but here goes.

The rains have stopped this week, and it's sunny and warmer.  But we did get considerable rain on the North Coast, though here in Arcata it really didn't feel like that much.  Maybe because a lot of it was at night.  It was often localized, though.  Eureka--less than 10 miles away--got rain on days we didn't (until Tuesday, Eureka got it every day in March except one.)  Southern Humboldt also seems to have gotten a lot more from the last couple of storms.

Still, our precip is officially at 6.85 inches for the month that's half over, and the average for all of March is 5.30.  And the news is better for the big reservoirs like Lake Shasta (reaching 79% of capacity) and Lake Oroville (70%,) both higher than this time of year for the past three years.  On March 6, Lake Oroville saw its biggest one day increase in 12 years.  Other reservoirs are also higher than normal, though not at capacity.

Also importantly for the summer, the Sierra snowpack grew, though it is only slightly above average for the date.  But in these drought years, that's very welcome.