No snow indicates drought’s not over

Early February’s storms brought sizeable quantities of rain to coastal California, but didn’t leave much snow behind, increasing concern that the on-going drought will be going on at least a little bit longer.

More than 10 inches of rain fell in San Francisco, but less than half that, 3.98 inches, fell at the Willow Brook Creek weather station in Petaluma. Coming on the heels of a bone-dry January, it felt like a flood, but North Coast reservoirs still remain below historic averages for this time of year.

There was almost no rain in Petaluma in January. The .06 inches of rainfall in January was an all-time low for Petaluma. The normal average rainfall for the month of January is 4.93 inches.

Petaluma received just slightly more rain in January than it averages annually from June through August. It was the lowest January rainfall total since 2013 when just 0.26 inches of rain fell in Petaluma.

Storage levels in both Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino, the two primary reservoirs serving Sonoma County, spiked higher from the early February storm - but remain below the 10-year water storage average, from 2004 to 2914.

“The recent rainfall has greatly helped fill our reservoirs,” said Brad Sherwood of the Sonoma County Water Agency. “These atmospheric river events have helped put a major dent in the drought. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but we are in a much better place now than we were last year.”

Still of statewide concern is the alarmingly low snow pack in the Sierras, the largest single source of water for many of the state’s cities, farms and population. At the end of January, the California Department of Water Resources characterized the snow pack as “dismally meager,” with water content between 11 percent and 20 percent of the long-term average.

The warm, “Pineapple Express” storms that passed through the state the first weekend in February did little to add to that supply.

(Contact Christian Kallen at argus@arguscourier.com)