2022-23 Hydrology Update

Welcome to the New Year!

If you’re anywhere in California, you are probably as ecstatic as I am right now about all the recent rainfall! This has been a great way to kick off 2023.

This week (the week of January 9th) our rainfall totals for Lake County are around 23 inches, about 63% of our “normal” water year and 143% above average for this time in January. The bigger news is, Clear Lake is rapidly on the rise thanks to the past few AR storms that brought sustained rainfall. Kelsey Creek is discharging at over 2000 cubic feet per second, a 1500% increase since January 4th. And now - as of yesterday evening - Clear Lake is back into the positive lake levels, surpassing 0 ft. rumsey. At the current fill rate, Clear Lake will continue to rise quickly… there is zero doubt that we’ll be starting this year off better than 2022 in terms of lake level.

How high it will go really depends on how long this sequence continues, and if future storms are inbound for late January and February. If we are back to usual warm and dry conditions next week and that persists through March, then it may only buy us the upcoming summer.

Some sources are now saying we may see this barrage of storms continue for the next week at least, although maybe in a weakened capacity.

The latest ENSO report shows a confident shift towards ENSO-neutral in the coming 90 days, and even more of a shift towards El Nino this coming summer. All great news for at least short-term drought resolution, and hopefully for next winter’s rainfall.

The lake has been rising quickly over the first half of January. That means silty, muddy water and lots of debris around the lake. Take caution if you’re out boating.

We’ll see what nature has in store for us.

Stuff to look at in the meantime:

Clear Lake Water Level – https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11450000/#parameterCode=00065&period=P30D

California Rainfall Totals (2016-2017 Water Year) - https://ggweather.com/ca2016rain.htm

Current California Rainfall Totals (updated daily) - https://ggweather.com/seasonal_rain.htm

Current California Rainfall graph (aggregate data) - https://engaging-data.com/california-precipitation-levels/

Weather West blog – commentary on recent storms –https://weatherwest.com/