Thursday, January 7, 2016

El Niño! Rains Reverse Shrinking Lake

California's ninth-largest reservoir, Folsom Lake, the main water source for the sprawling Sacramento suburbs, shrank to a mere 135,561 acre feet on Dec. 4, 2015, reports the San Francisco Chronicle..

The previous lowest level at Folsom was 140,600 acre feet, recorded during the 1976–77 drought. An acre foot is enough water to flood an acre of land under a foot of water, and roughly the amount required by a family of four over a year.

With the recent rains, Folsom's water level has risen 28.5 feet and the reservoir is now holding 246,497 acre feet of water.

And check this out:

1 comment:

  1. So far, it's been steady rain, and not the huge, pounding rain of the 1998 El Niño. That will probably change, but it's good so far. During the 1998 El Niño, my house took a direct hit from a small F1 tornado while I was home. The sudden wind speed increase and pressure drop was impressive (made the house sound like it was being pulled apart), but there were only a few tiles damaged.

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