[pct-l] weather . . .

[atjulliard at yahoo.com (Alan Julliard)]

>Today ' s NYTimes : ( Front page - under , " Inside "
, >listings : " Water , Water Everywhere " , page A10
)
>    " The heavy rains that have persisted across much
of >the west have provided some much needed relief
from the >five year drought . . . "  
>     What say you - all who live there and KNOW what
' s >what ? is water . 
> Rafter Jack

Jack,

  I don't live in the West (I am in Anchorage which is
considered North and we too have had plenty of
precipitation this winter) but I have been carefully
watching the current "El Nino" as I am heading to
Grand Canyon in March.  The last time I backpacked
there 5 years ago (in June), it was an extreme drought
and we had to self-rescue when the "permanent" water
dried up days from help.
  The website I recommend for drought information is
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/.  Regardless of the
current high amount of precipitation, the actual
drought status is not expected to decrease more than 1
step away from extreme.  Here is today's status:

Alan

=======================================================
WESTERN DROUGHT STATUS
"Once again, the West was pounded by another major
storm system late last week and again
over the weekend with heavy rains in the lowlands and
several feet of snow in the higher
elevations. Most of the I-5 and I-15 corridors in
California were inundated with rains of 3 to 6
inches (or more locally) and heavy snows of several
feet in the upper elevations of the Sierras
(now 150-180% average snowpack water content through
January 3) bringing much-needed
relief to the dryness in the region. While short-term
recovery can be seen in soil moisture levels
there is still some ground to be made up on the
hydrological side of the drought with regards to
reservoir storage levels in the region. The abnormally
dry (D0) category has been pushed totally
eastward off the coast, out of the valleys and up into
the leeward side of the Sierra-Nevada.
With the record warm/dry March of 2004 fresh in our
memories though, it wouldn?t take much to
revert back to dryness given the general draw-down of
storage in the region?s reservoirs unless
this wet cycle continues into the spring.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com