Mother Nature’s Reservoir System
No one appreciates precipitation, especially in the form of snow, more than Nevadans. We love to ski on it, swim in it, boat on it, fish in it and water our yards with it. Most importantly, we understand, more than most, that is a precious commodity. This year the snow gods have blessed us with a tremendous bounty! 706 inches have fallen to date at our own Mt. Rose Ski Resort extending our season until Memorial Day – giving us the unique opportunity to both ski and boat in the same weekend. Historically, 1938 brought us our biggest snowfall at 819 inches recorded at Donner Pass by the Central Pacific Railroad. We most likely won’t catch up to that, but it is snowing as I write this.
Lake Tahoe’s water level sits at 6,226.81 feet, which is almost five feet above where it sat the last two years on this date. The LA Times reported that just under one foot or 33.6 billion gallons of water was added to the lake in the first week of January alone this year. An additional five feet then would equal approximately 135 billion gallons more water stored in the lake than in 2015 and 2016 – not accounting for the water being let out into the Truckee River.
Mountain snowpack is Mother Nature’s reservoir system. On average across the Sierra Nevada range, there is 164% of the April 1st average water content in the current snowpack. So far, Mother Nature has been doing an amazing job of completely eliminating the drought without a whole lot of damage – snow, then a little rain, warming up to just flood a little bit, more snow, a little more rain, warming, cooling. If this pattern continues, not only will the man-made reservoirs be full, but the aquifers in California may completely bounce back creating a healthy snowpack to surface water to ground water ratio. If not, and it gets too warm too fast, our precious snowpack reserve could be wasted. Either way, whether we get lucky or not, just a heads up to the State planners out there…make sure our water infrastructure is up to the task. Catch it when we have it; so we can save it when we don’t.