Giant Forest weather station gets 13in of precip
Rain and snow totals this week are heartening to Kaweah watershed watchers, including farmers and downstream communities.
At the 6400ft level, the weather station at the famed big tree grouping called Giant Forest drains to the Kaweah River.
Giant Forest is famous because John Muir himself named it as the largest gathering of giant Sequoias in the world.But it is also a key weather station watched by state water users.
Before the latest storm, the weather station had been underperforming receiving just 9.6 inches so far this water year that launched in October. That 9.6 inches number is as of February 5. The station on average gets over 42 inches of precip annually.
Fast forward to February 15 – ten days later and we have 22.5 inches of water in the bucket or another 13 inches from a couple of days of vigorous and cold storms brought about by an atmospheric river that hit middle California.
This time last year there was under 15 inches of precip measured at Giant Forest as of Feb 15, 2024.
The Tulare Basin Index that includes Giant Forest is now 88% of average for Feb 15 – up from 60% on Feb 5.
Expected runoff this year has gone from around 22% ten days ago to around 55% of April 1 average. Impressively, the 6-station Tulare Basin Index that includes Giant Forest is now 88% of average for Feb 15 – up from 60% on Feb 5.
Trump intervention
It was just a few weeks ago that Kaweah water made the national news when President Trump ordered impounded Kaweah irrigation water, about 4000af, to be released suddenly downstream when no release was needed to widespread criticism in the local farm community.
Now mother nature seems to have backfilled the loss.
Snow totals were impressive up and down the Sierra too as you can see from this NWS satellite photo of the snowpack up and down the mountain range.This time the snowman did not leave out the southern Sierra range.
In the Tahoe region one account says the” Sierra Nevada finally got a big snowfall this week in a winter that has so far been marked by warm storms that have brought more rain and slush than snow to the mountain range. Snowfall totals for Wednesday night to Friday morning ranged from four and a half feet on Mount Rose in Nevada to three feet at Donner Pass in California.”
“So far this has been the largest snow maker that we’ve seen in the Sierra this season,” Colin McKellar, a forecaster with the National Weather Service office in Reno, Nev., said on Friday.”
Back in the southern Sierra, ski resort China Peak – uphill from Fresno- saw about 40 inches of new snow and Mammoth reported 52 inches over three days.
It wasn’t just the Kaweah watershed that saw good rain and snowfall. At Charlotte Lake, a 10,440ft peak in the Kings drainage, the station got 9 inches of precip between mid January to today.
Snowfall was strong as well, building from 46 inches to 77 inches- six and one half feet on the ground.
Before you get too excited, note that the forecast for the second half of February looks dry in middle California.
Statewide precip 111% of average
