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CapitalPress.com
January 9, 2015
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California
Warm December storms of little help to snowpack
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — The big
storms that hit California in De-
cember brought more mountain
snow than at this point last year,
but not enough water content to
achieve normal levels, the sea-
son’s first manual snow survey
has confirmed.
At a plot along Highway 50
near Echo Summit, about 90
miles east of here, state Depart-
ment of Water Resources offi-
cials on Dec. 30 found a snow
water equivalent of 4 inches, or
33 percent of average, reported
Frank Gehrke, chief of the agen-
cy’s snow surveys program.
The statewide electronic
readings for that day were more
encouraging, as 105 sensors in
the Sierra Nevada detected a
snow water equivalent of 4.8
inches, or half the multi-year av-
erage. That’s better than the 20
percent of normal water content
in the mountains at the time of
last winter’s first survey.
Elizabeth Scott, a DWR
spokeswoman, was encouraged
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
The Trinity Alps west of Redding, Calif., are normally covered with
snow this time of year, but they showed only a dusting as of Dec.
30. A statewide snow survey that day found only about half the
normal snow water content for the date.
to see snow falling as she was
putting chains on her car to pro-
ceed to the survey site.
“We need a lot more,” she
said. “This needs to continue
and be consistent so we can get
up above normal this year.”
Unfortunately for growers,
chances look slim that the snow-
pack will reach average levels
by April 1, when it is considered
to be at its peak. The federal
Climate Prediction Center still
envisions a wetter-than-normal
winter throughout the state but
with higher temperatures, which
could lock snow levels in the
high country.
“The high-elevation stuff is
great, but we really want to see
that mid-level snow packing in
as well,” said Michelle Mead,
a National Weather Service
warning coordinator here. “The
current forecasts reduce the like-
lihood of that happening.”
Water officials and Nation-
al Weather Service forecasters
have said California needs at
least 150 percent of normal pre-
cipitation — including 150 per-
cent of normal snowpack — to
avoid a fourth straight year of
drought in 2015. The snowpack
is important because it provides
spring and summer runoff for
reservoirs after the rains have
stopped.
As a series of storms brought
near-record rainfall to many ar-
eas of California in December,
snow levels mostly stayed at
5,000 feet or higher. Tempera-
tures dropped considerably Dec.
30 when a cold front swooped
down from the Gulf of Alas-
ka, bringing strong, damaging
winds to northern areas that
downed trees and power lines
and caused power outages and
two fatalities, the National
Weather Service reported.
In anticipation of several
nights of below-freezing tem-
peratures, citrus growers were
preparing to use irrigation
pumps and wind machines, said
Bob Blakely, vice president of
the Exeter-based California Cit-
rus Mutual.
“I think we’re taking it pretty
seriously,” Blakely said of the
cold. “Growers are out making
their preparations — making
sure the pumps are all working
so they’ll be able to run water,
making sure their fuel tanks are
ready to go.”
Temperatures were expect-
ed to warm up again on the
weekend after New Year’s. The
Sacramento area’s next shot at
rain was expected around Jan.
7, ushering in a series of light,
periodic storms through Janu-
ary, according to AccuWeather’s
long-range forecast.
California would have lots
of work to do to achieve an
average snowpack on April 1,
considered the season’s bench-
mark. Even the northern Sierras,
which have the most snow at 57
percent of average water content
for the date, is at just 20 percent
of its average for April 1, the
DWR reports.
The department and cooper-
ating agencies conduct manual
snow surveys around the first of
the month from January to May,
providing a basis for determin-
ing allocation levels for state and
federal water contractors.
The meager snowpack and
its implications for water stor-
age were a key reason the DWR
initially estimated several weeks
ago that it will deliver just 10
percent of requested allocations
to State Water Project contrac-
tors. The 29 public agencies
with state water contracts serve
more than 25 million Califor-
nians and nearly 1 million acres
of irrigated farmland, according
to DWR. A 10 percent allocation
would be twice the percentage
finally delivered to State Water
Project contractors in 2014. The
last 100-percent allocation was
in 2006.
California citrus growers avert frost damage
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
Citrus growers in California’s
San Joaquin Valley appear to
have averted frost damage as
they’ve harvested about a quarter
of their crop of navel oranges.
Nighttime lows during the
week of New Year’s didn’t
get as cold as anticipated and
growers were well prepared in
deploying irrigation and wind
machines as early as 10 p.m.,
the Exeter-based California Cit-
rus Mutual reported.
Their early start helped keep
orchard temperatures higher as
temperatures in most areas never
got as low as the 26 degrees that
was forecast, CCM president
Joel Nelsen said. Nonetheless,
growers spent about $5 million
in fuel to run the machines and
water pumps.
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With weekend temperatures
expected to be higher, the in-
dustry’s attention was turning to
getting more of the estimated 81
million carton navel crop off the
trees.
“We’re approaching the 25
percent mark on the navel har-
vest,” CCM vice president Bob
Blakely said, adding that yields
have been “running about on
estimate.”
Growers have been picking
smaller fruit than normal be-
cause of drought stress on trees
throughout the prime citrus re-
gion of Fresno, Kings and Tu-
lare counties, which received no
irrigation water from the federal
Central Valley Project this year.
However, navels have sweet-
ened nicely, and utilization rates
— the fruit that’s packed as
fresh and not diverted to juice
— have remained above 80 per-
cent, Blakely said.
“Some of the blocks have
come in lighter than what was
estimated, but with all these
rains we’ve started to see some
improvement in size,” he said.
“The quality has been good, and
the fruit’s a little bit father ad-
vanced than it usually is at this
time of year.”
The New Year’s cold snap
was the season’s first after freez-
es during the 2013-2014 harvest
cost the citrus industry about
$441 million in revenue, includ-
ing $260 million lost to navel or-
ange producers and processors,
according to Citrus Mutual.
Adding to growers’ woes
has been the drought, which
prompted drastic water curtail-
ments that caused some pro-
ducers to take out less viable or-
chards and fallow ground until it
can be redeveloped.
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