Issued by NWS San Joaquin Valley, CA
000 AXUS76 KHNX 041819 DGTHNX CAC019-029-031-039-043-047-107-041400- DROUGHT INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY - HANFORD CA 1115 AM PDT SAT OCT 4 2008 ...DRY WEATHER TO CONTINUE ACROSS THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA INTERIOR... SYNOPSIS...ON JUNE 4TH...CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER PROCLAIMED A STATEWIDE DROUGHT. ON JUNE 12TH...A STATE OF EMERGENCY PROCLAMATION DUE TO DROUGHT WAS MADE FOR MERCED...MADERA...KINGS... FRESNO...TULARE AND KERN COUNTIES. THE U.S DROUGHT MONITOR IS INDICATING A SEVERE DROUGHT /CLASSIFICATION D2/ FOR KERN...KINGS... MERCED AND TULARE COUNTIES...AND THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AND SIERRA FOOTHILL PORTIONS OF FRESNO...MADERA AND MARIPOSA COUNTIES. SUMMARY OF IMPACTS...AGENCIES ARE EXPERIENCING SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS. KERN COUNTY IS UNDER A WATER EMERGENCY. FRESNO AND KINGS COUNTIES ARE UNDER LOCAL DECLARATIONS OF DROUGHT. DRY TIMBER AND BRUSH COMBINED WITH WELL ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES HAVE KEPT THE FIRE DANGER HIGH IN THE SOUTHERN SIERRA NEVADA. IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY...THE LACK OF WATER HAS LED TO THE ABANDONMENT OF CROPS OR THE FALLOWING OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. THIS HAD LED TO SUBSTANTIAL ECONOMIC LOSSES IN THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITIES WITH BELOW NORMAL CROP YIELDS...LOST JOBS AND WAGES. CLIMATE SUMMARY...RAINFALL IN THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA INTERIOR WAS SPARSE TO NON-EXISTENT IN SEPTEMBER. NO MEASURABLE RAIN FELL IN THE CENTRAL OR SOUTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AND ADJACENT FOOTHILLS. ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ON SEPTEMBER 29TH PRODUCED LOCAL RAIN AMOUNTS OF AROUND A HALF AN INCH IN THE SIERRA NEVADA AND THE KERN COUNTY MOUNTAINS BUT DID LITTLE TO RELIEVE THE OVERALL DROUGHT. PRECIPITATION/TEMPERATURE OUTLOOK...IN SPITE OF RECENT PRECIPITATION ...DRY WEATHER WILL PREVAIL THROUGH THE COMING WEEK WITH TEMPERATURES AVERAGING SLIGHTLY ABOVE NORMAL. THE CLIMATE PREDICTION OUTLOOK FOR THE NEXT 30 DAYS IS INDICATING A CHANCE OF ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES FOR THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA INTERIOR WITH AN EQUAL CHANCE OF BELOW...NEAR AND ABOVE NORMAL PRECIPITATION. HYDROLOGIC SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK...FOLLOWING A VERY DRY 2006-2007 SEASON...THE SAN JOAQUIN RIVER RUNOFF VOLUME WAS RANKED AS CRITICALLY DRY. THE 2007-2008 FORECAST RUNOFF VOLUMES ARE FORECAST TO REMAIN CRITICALLY DRY THROUGH THE END OF OCTOBER. RESERVOIR STORAGE AS OF AUGUST 31ST... FOR THE 34 RESERVOIRS IN THE SAN JOAQUIN RIVER BASIN...RESERVOIR LEVELS WERE AT 74 PERCENT OF AVERAGE. FOR THE 6 RESERVOIRS IN THE TULARE LAKE BASIN...RESERVOIR LEVELS WERE AT 51 PERCENT OF AVERAGE. MORE DETAILED RESERVOIR INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE: HTTP://CDEC.WATER.CA.GOV/RESERVOIR.HTML NEXT ISSUANCE DATE...THE NEXT SCHEDULED PRODUCT WILL BE ISSUED BY NOVEMBER 4TH...OR SOONER IF NECESSARY IN RESPONSE TO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN CONDITIONS. && RELATED WEBSITES... CALIFORNIA DATA EXCHANGE CENTER: HTTP://CDEC.WATER.CA.GOV/ CALIFORNIA NEVADA RIVER FORECAST CENTER: HTTP://WWW.CNRFC.NOAA.GOV/ DROUGHT MONITOR: HTTP://DROUGHT.UNL.EDU/DM/MONITOR.HTML CALIFORNIA DROUGHT PAGE: HTTP://WATERSUPPLYCONDITIONS.WATER.CA.GOV/ CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER: HTTP://WWW.CPC.NOAA.GOV/INDEX.PHP NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HANFORD: HTTP://WWW.WEATHER.GOV/HANFORD/ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS... CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER DROUGHT MONITOR CALIFORNIA NEVADA RIVER FORECAST CENTER NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY - HANFORD CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES CALIFORNIA STATE CLIMATOLOGIST U.S. BUREAU OF RECLAMATION CAL FIRE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE CALIFORNIA CATTLEMEN/S ASSOCIATION KINGS...KERN AND FRESNO COUNTY OFFICES OF EMERGENCY SERVICES QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS...PLEASE REFER ALL QUESTIONS TO W-HNX.WEBMASTER@NOAA.GOV $$ DURFEE/JMB/MATTHEWS WEATHER.GOV/HANFORD
