[TonyLima]

The California Water Watch website has a section on aquifer/wells/groundwater.  It's not updated as frequently as the other areas (snowpack, perciptiation, reservoirs, etc) so I don't watch it as closely.  However, the aquifer levels have been dropping for years and are far less responsive to good/bad years.

https://cww.water.ca.gov/

Back when I taught environmental economics, we had a segment on aquifers.  There are basically two types: those that have a clay layer above them and all the others.  That clay layer pretty much prevents any recharge at all.  The others will recharge, albeit slowly.

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I was thinking the same thing.  Many of those lower, flood control reservoirs should be dumping water as quick as they possibly can.  I see Friant/Millerton which I know well (family owned a marina there) is at 118%.  They will need a lot more snow run-off capacity than that allows soon.  When the lake overtops Friant dam there's flooding all along the San Joaquin river course.   I last saw that happen in 1997 when water release through the spillway was overwhelmed and water overtopped across the dam.

Usually lake water level is at it's lowest in late April/early May as the water control managers received info on the snowpack and could estimate the capacity needed.  I'm surprised to see the lake at 18% above normal capacity in late March of a year with record snowpack.  I hope they are dumping water.

I don't expect this to be as bad as 1997 which was an epic season that saw a heavy snowfall followed by a large southern "pineapple express" that both dumped a lot of water and quickly melted the snowpack leading to of immense proportions and unexpected river flows.  Yosemite was heavily hit leading to pictures I'm sure many of us remember.  The water management folks should have much more time to prepare for this.

It appears they've been discharging water at that dam for the past 3 weeks, currently at 9,000 cfs.
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/jspplot/jspPlo...ies=cdec01
If I read other data right, they've lowered the lake level 7 inches in the past 9 hours, about 2 feet per day.
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/Que...2023+17:04

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The California Water Watch website has a section on aquifer/wells/groundwater.  It's not updated as frequently as the other areas (snowpack, perciptiation, reservoirs, etc) so I don't watch it as closely.  However, the aquifer levels have been dropping for years and are far less responsive to good/bad years.

https://cww.water.ca.gov/

This seems a decent visualization
https://cww.water.ca.gov/maps?tab=gwLevels

They point out that most of the measured wells are measured only twice a year.   If you click on one of the dots, you can see a time series of levels for that well.   Central Valley has been going down over the years.  Bay Area seems pretty good.

Very interesting.  Thanks.

[TonyLima]

The California Water Watch website has a section on aquifer/wells/groundwater.  It's not updated as frequently as the other areas (snowpack, perciptiation, reservoirs, etc) so I don't watch it as closely.  However, the aquifer levels have been dropping for years and are far less responsive to good/bad years.

https://cww.water.ca.gov/

Back when I taught environmental economics, we had a segment on aquifers.  There are basically two types: those that have a clay layer above them and all the others.  That clay layer pretty much prevents any recharge at all.  The others will recharge, albeit slowly.

---

I was thinking the same thing.  Many of those lower, flood control reservoirs should be dumping water as quick as they possibly can.  I see Friant/Millerton which I know well (family owned a marina there) is at 118%.  They will need a lot more snow run-off capacity than that allows soon.  When the lake overtops Friant dam there's flooding all along the San Joaquin river course.   I last saw that happen in 1997 when water release through the spillway was overwhelmed and water overtopped across the dam.

Usually lake water level is at it's lowest in late April/early May as the water control managers received info on the snowpack and could estimate the capacity needed.  I'm surprised to see the lake at 18% above normal capacity in late March of a year with record snowpack.  I hope they are dumping water.

I don't expect this to be as bad as 1997 which was an epic season that saw a heavy snowfall followed by a large southern "pineapple express" that both dumped a lot of water and quickly melted the snowpack leading to of immense proportions and unexpected river flows.  Yosemite was heavily hit leading to pictures I'm sure many of us remember.  The water management folks should have much more time to prepare for this.

It appears they've been discharging water at that dam for the past 3 weeks, currently at 9,000 cfs.
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/jspplot/jspPlo...ies=cdec01
If I read other data right, they've lowered the lake level 7 inches in the past 9 hours, about 2 feet per day.
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/Que...2023+17:04

---

The California Water Watch website has a section on aquifer/wells/groundwater.  It's not updated as frequently as the other areas (snowpack, perciptiation, reservoirs, etc) so I don't watch it as closely.  However, the aquifer levels have been dropping for years and are far less responsive to good/bad years.

https://cww.water.ca.gov/

This seems a decent visualization
https://cww.water.ca.gov/maps?tab=gwLevels

They point out that most of the measured wells are measured only twice a year.   If you click on one of the dots, you can see a time series of levels for that well.   Central Valley has been going down over the years.  Bay Area seems pretty good.

Very interesting.  Thanks.