Water anxiety grips state press

DESPAIR!!

Once again, as She does every year now, since its population hit 30 million, Mother Nature is betraying California by not providing enough rainfall to allay the anxieties of the finance, insurance and real estate special interests. The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite is only 1150 percent of normal capacity for this time of year; Shasta Lake is only 111 percent of normal; and lesser reservoirs are above or at 100 percent capacity.

It's just awful. -- ed

1-30-13
Merced Sun-Star

Hopes for a wet year are drying out…San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/01/30/v-print/2787530/hopes-for-a-wet-...

When it comes to rain and snow in California, this winter began with great promise. But hopes for a bountiful year appear to be evaporating.

The Sierra Nevada snowpack is at 93 percent of the historical average for the end of January, according to the state Department of Water Resources survey completed Tuesday afternoon.

That's not bad -- but a month ago, it was 140 percent.

What happened? Huge storms in early December dumped lots of snow across the Sierra, and rain filled reservoirs all over the state. But there has been almost no rain or snow in January.

"It's not looking nearly as rosy as it did on Jan. 1," said Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program with the Department of Water Resources.

Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite was 69 percent full Tuesday, 150 percent of normal for this time of year.

On Tuesday, Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in California, was 76 percent full, 111 percent of normal for this date.

Lake Oroville, Folsom Lake and Don Pedro Reservoir were, respectively, at 113, 110 and 99 percent of normal.