With California seeing its first major rainstorm of the season, the Los Angeles Times said, “Scientists have yet to determine whether the Eastern Pacific is falling into an El Niño pattern and will produce a wetter than average year. Still, state water officials decided to double the initial allocations that water agencies will receive from the State Water Project in 2015, which delivers water from the Sierra to farmland in the Central Valley and urban Southern California through a vast network of reservoirs and canals.” The allocations still are small – 10 percent of the water requested by local agencies.
To recover from the drought, California needs 150 percent of its average rainfall. “That would mean a total of 75 inches of rain from Oct 1, 2014, through Sept 30, 2015, recorded at eight stations in the northern Sierra,” said the Times.
Separately, state officials said the three-year-old drought in California could wipe out the Muir Woods coho salmon that spawn in Redwood Creek near San Francisco, said Reuters. The creek is the southernmost home for the coho salmon. About 100 juvenile salmon, stranded due to low water in the creek, are being raised at a fish hatchery for a potential return to the stream next winter. A search last winter found no salmon eggs in the creek and there was no sign of young salmon during the summer, said Reuters, citing a state official.