Drought — Mountains Southwest Shasta County To Northern Lake County, California

2015-03-01 to 2015-03-31 · Mountains Southwest Shasta County To Northern Lake County, California

Event narrative

The drought is impacting Lake County, with farmers clipping some wine grape vines, reducing irrigation needed this summer, while reducing their harvest. Agricultural jobs and related businesses have lost jobs.

Wider weather episode

An extremely dry March followed a below normal February for most areas. This continued the 4th consecutive year of drought for the region. Mountain snowfall was very limited for the month. This along with record warmth over the area resulted in the lowest snow pack levels on record for the time of year. By the end of March, the snow pack was only about 5 percent of normal levels. Melting snow pack supplies about a third of the annual water supply for California. Reservoirs across the area by the end of March were already well below normal levels.

Extreme drought was detected by the U.S. Drought Monitor across most the region, with exceptional drought for the northern San Joaquin Valley, the central and southern Sacramento Valley, the Burney Basin and the Sierra south of Interstate 80.

Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency for the entire state of California January 17, 2014 and this continued to be in effect.

Local Emergency Proclamations have been issued for El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Plumas, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sutter, Tuolumne, and Yuba counties. The cities of Live Oak Lodi, and Ripon continue in a drought emergency. Drought task forces have been established in Butte, Lake, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tuolumne, and Yolo counties to coordinate response to the drought.

Voluntary water conservation efforts reduced water usage by 3.6 percent statewide compared to March 2014. Governor Brown ordered mandatory restrictions of 25 percent statewide, the first time such mandatory restrictions have been enacted.

Agriculture has been heavily impacted, with numerous farm and farm related jobs lost. Spring planting is being scaled back significantly, with many existing tree crops and vines being removed due to a lack of irrigation water. The state continued to supply food assistance to those impacted. California Disaster Assistance Act money continued to be provided for those who have lost drinking water due to dry wells.

There was a large decrease in the snow-related tourism activity in the mountains due to the lack of snow, with many resorts closing early.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 568188. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.