Even as a fast-moving front created the very rare sight of sleet on Southern California beaches, the March snowpack measurements in the high Sierras revealed a water content that was as low as the driest years in California’s recorded history.

A very wet December throughout the state has kept season-wide (July 1-June 30) precipitation totals at near-normal levels.

However, for the most part, those were warm storms that did not produce the all-important snowfall that California counts on to fill its reservoirs come spring and summer. The December rains were a welcome sight, as they did start the year off right, but December was followed by an extremely dry January and a February that was not much better — or wetter.

Unusual weather patterns have created some unusual storms, including sleet on Southern California beaches on March 2, but the idea that the drought is over or even anywhere near over is a mirage that is coming into focus as spring arrives.

The five-month period from December through April provides California with 90 percent of its annual rainfall and snowpack. With end of the season approaching, the hope of an above-average season is all but gone.

Prior to the start of the rainy season, experts estimated that the state would have to receive about 150 percent of normal precipitation to climb out of its drought or near-drought conditions. That has not happened.

Consequently, on March 2, the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which managers California’s Central Valley Project, announced an initial zero percent water allocation for farmers and cities in the San Joaquin Valley this summer.  The zero percent allocation could increase and will be reviewed monthly, but it basically tells growers that they aren’t going to get much federally controlled water this year.

The State Water Project forecast is not as grim, but it estimates deliveries at only 20 percent of contracted levels. Again that number could increase, but at its current level it would be the second lowest allocation to users since 1991. Last year State Water Project users received a 5 percent allocation.

In its regular newsletter to its members, Irvine, CA-based Western Growers Association decried the meager allocations, noting that the current drought conditions “are exacerbated by [Endangered Species Act]-based biological decisions that continue to restrict the delivery of water to farms and cities south of the Delta. Even when winter storm events provided opportunities to capture additional runoff, federal and state regulations have required much of the runoff to flow out to sea.”

WGA says it continues to press for action by Congress to mandate more reasonable policies. 

“It is imperative that Congress pass legislation to end the unreasonable implementation of ESA rules that force project operators to miss windows of opportunity even in the midst of drought,” WGA’s March 3 newsletter stated.  “Opportunities to store and deliver water to areas of the state where it’s needed have been once again lost.”

If the initial zero percent water allocation announced by the Central Valley Project holds firm through the current water year, it will mark an unprecedented event for water deliveries in California — a second straight year of no federal water for San Joaquin Valley farmers. 

The early-March electronic snowpack readings showed that statewide the measurement stood at just 19 percent of typical water content for this time of year. That snowpack typically provides about a third of the water people use in California each year.