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January 2015 Wines&Vines 19 N apa, Calif.—The heavy storms that hit Califor- nia in mid-December won't end the drought, but they will certainly help: "Be- fore the rainy pattern takes a break, cumulative rainfall will have taken a huge slice out of the long-term drought," said Accu- Weather.com meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. The biggest rains came Dec. 11, when an average of 2.5 inches of rain fell across the state and far more fell on some areas: Northern Sonoma County received almost 5 inches in a day, sending a mas- sive surge down the Russian River. Nevertheless, the California Department of Water Resources estimates the state will need six more storms like this to fill its 12 major reservoirs and bring an end to the long-term drought. "We're a long way from the precipitation levels needed to get us out of a drought," said spokesman Doug Carlson. "We need to get 150% of normal rainfall to make a dent in the state's water shortage." At present, the major state res- ervoirs stand at 54% of total aver- age storage, 8 million acre-feet of water compared to the average of 15 million acre-feet. Most large reservoirs are still below the level of a year ago, though some smaller reservoirs are at average, or even higher. Lake Shasta, the largest with 4.5 million acre-feet of capacity, is at 52% of average storage, but that's only 31% of its total capacity. California needs 11 trillion gallons of water to recover from its three-year drought, the Na- tional Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) estimates after studying water resources using satellite data. "It takes years to get into a drought of this severity, and it will likely take many more big storms, and years, to crawl out of it," said Jay Fami- glietti of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Meanwhile, other NASA satel- lite data showed that so far this year, the snowpack in California's Sierra Nevada range is only half previous estimates. The recent rains arrived cour- tesy of the Pineapple Express, a "river" in the atmosphere stretch- ing from Hawaii to California, that's a virtual tributary of the moist band of air circling the trop- ics. This wet air is typically re- sponsible for about 30% to 50% of the annual rain in the dry west- ern states, but this storm was par- ticularly notable as it came during a three-year drought. At present, the San Francisco Bay Area has received about 150% of its average precipitation for the weather year October through Sep- tember. Most of the state's wine- growing areas have had rainfall above average for this date. Snowpack is below average but better than last year (41% state- wide compared to 29% last year). For the state's critical mountain regions, precipitation in the Northern Sierra stands at 18.7 inches for the season to date, 139% of average compared to 3.3 inches last year, 25% of average. For the Southern Sierra, the fig- ures are 7.2 inches, 73% of aver- age compared to 3 inches last year, 31% of average. Snow accumulation is espe- cially important since it fills reser- voirs in the spring and summer, when water is most needed for irrigation. Fortunately, the drought hasn't affected California grapegrowers as heavily as other farmers. Silicon Valley Bank's recent Financial Conditions Survey of its customers and some others in the industry reports that only 36% of Califor- nia wineries reported a measur- a b l e e f f e c t f r o m t h e 2 014 California drought. The most sig- nificant issues were felt in the California's Central Valley, Central C o a s t a n d S i e r r a Fo o t h i l l s regions. A spokesman for the California Association of Winegrape Growers said, "Wine grape growers are looking at these recent storms the same way: Every little bit of water is appreciated. In some areas it is having beneficial effects of reduc- ing salt buildups in the soil created by the dry, drought conditions. These storms have been warm with lots of rain, and we would like to see them deliver more snow to the mountains, where the water ends up replenishing our reservoirs. But, every drop of moisture counts." Carlson of state water re- sources said that his organization will have a much better view of the prospects for continuing drought at the end of February and when the snowpack starts melting around April 1. —Paul Franson Mendocino County, Calif., got 10.85 inches of rain between Dec. 1 and Dec. 18. wine industry news tOP stORY Rain Encourages Growers Though Drought Remains JASON McCONNELL, RIVINO WINERY California rainfall—season to date Season to Date Average to Date Percent of Average to Date Lodi 7.7 4.9 157% Monterey 3.4 2.1 162% Napa 12.3 10.1 122% Sonoma 14.5 8.2 177% rainfall season to date—perCent of average Lodi Monterey Napa Sonoma 200% 150% 100% 50% 0 Rainfall season July 2014-June 2015, rainfall data in inches through Dec. 17. Source: winebusiness.com, California Irrigation Management Information System.