The sensors set in the Central Sierras, this month, show that the snow pack's water content is 134% of average for this time of the year, according to a reading on the 4th of January.
Many of the state and local reservoirs are filling up, but last years low level hurt businesses, ski resorts, snow play areas, and many state reservoirs.
In the past years, around this time, we have seen good water levels building up in our reservoirs, but nature turned it's spic off. All of a sudden, our winter turned dry--we had to have water rationing during the summer months.
"It looks good now." a spokesperson for the Tuolumne Utilities District(TUD) said, but we will know more about our water supply in April or May. The only thing we can hope for is a good snow pack so that we will have plenty of water in our reservoirs for this summer.
Here is an example of what a good summer run off can do for a person. In one of the small communities, in California's gold country, there's a creek that passes close to a small community. At the hight of the winter run off, you could hear rocks rumbling around by the water's pressure.
One day, when there was little water in the creek, several boys were walking home, in and among the rocks, dodging the water. One of the boys found an odd looking rock, so he picked it up and put it into his pant's pocket. When he got home he changed his clothes, did his homework, played outside, had dinner, and went to bed.
When his father got home, he went into the boy's room, after dinner, to kiss the boy goodnight. On the way in, he saw the boy's pants, which he wore to school, on the floor. He pick it up, and because of the weight of the pants, he searched the pants and found the rock that the boy picked up in the creek. When he was looking at it, a small part of the rock seemed to be winking at him, which he felt it was odd. He put the rock on the boy's desk and walked out of the room.
The next day when he took a better look at the rock, he saw the rock winking at him again. The winking seemed to look like a small gold spec, but he was not sure. So on his lunch time, he took it to a jeweler and asked if that small speck was gold. The jeweler said to leave it with him, come back after work, and he would let him know.
After work, the boy's father came back to the jewelry store. The exited jeweler ran up to him and asked. "Where did you get that rock?" "My boy found it in a creek." he said, with a dazed expression. "Do you know what you have?" the jeweler ask. "No, not really." the father said. "You have a nugget that is worth close to $1,200.00 at today's gold rate." the jeweler said with a big smile.
So, you can now see what a summer run of can do for a person. This story was told to me by the father of the boy, who I had to promise not to use his his name or the name of the area where the creek is located.
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