It has been an extremely dry winter so far. If we go into drought conditions how will this affect the creek flows for the rest of the year? I don't think this dry season will be comparable to the drought in the 70s but.. It's coming close. How did the creek hold up back then?
Nic
-- Edited by Xnjb707X on Wednesday 15th of January 2014 08:37:12 AM
The lack of rain will INCREASE the creek flows. In fact, it already has. The current stream flow is 202 CFS and flows above 200 don't usually occur until sometime in March. The Solano Irrigation District controls the dam's discharge and since we've had almost no rain this Winter, the farmers downstream need more water for irrigation. I'm guessing that it would take a whole lot of rain for them drop the flows back to historically "normal" Winter flows.
Many people like the higher flows so if you are one of these people, you should have good fishing.
Drove across the bridge on the way home from Napa today. The flows looked to be very low.
Listening to the radio while driving I heard a blurp about 0% water allocations for farmers but did not catch what area of the state was being discussed. Berryessa is low but sure seems to have a lot of water just the same. I'm curious what kind of cuts SID are looking at locally and what percentage of Berryessa is ag use versus other? Imagine low, or lower, flows in Summer.
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Winter eats heat the way darkness swallows light. The terrors of failed power and frozen stems are stymied with fire, smoke and white ash.
The last I had heard was that a bill was sent to Sac that would have overrun the endangered species act of required flows and instead would have allowed for diversion to farmland instead. I think it was denied.
