A dry winter has kept Alston Park from becoming a muddy mess for hikers and runners. Here is one of the few puddles in the upper park.
Time is running out to keep this from being the rainy season that wasn’t.
Napa County Airport as of Friday had 6.02 inches of rain since the rain year began on October 1. Though the airport bordering wetlands near San Pablo Bay is one of the county’s drier locations, that is only 40% of normal for the season-to-date.
“That is about as pitiful as you can get,” said Mike Pechner of Fairfield-based Golden West Meteorology.
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March is typically the last month of the rainy season for significant storms, the type that can get the creeks roaring and reservoirs filling.
“We’ll get some rain in March,” Pechner said. “March could even be near-normal. But it’s way too late to make up the deficit.”
March likely won't come in like a lion or even get a bad-tempered housecat. National Weather Service predictions as of Friday called for a sunny start to the month, with a better chance of unsettled weather toward next weekend.
How dry is it? Grape-grower Steve Moulds for 20 years has used a small reservoir to irrigate his vineyards along Dry Creek Road northwest of the city of Napa and it’s only a third full.
“We’ve never had a year like this,” Moulds said. “Usually, our reservoir has spilled by the end of December.”
The city of Napa’s main local reservoir, Lake Hennessey in the mountains east of Rutherford, was 71% full at the start of the rainy season. As of Thursday, it was 68% full.
“We need a few good soaks to get the ground saturated before we can get the runoff,” city Deputy Utilities Director Joy Eldredge said. “We really haven’t seen that this year.”
Weather forecasters in late January predicted an atmospheric river storm would pound Napa County in the coming days. Three to six inches of rain would fall. Napa County warned people near the wildfire burn areas to be braced for mudslides.
Instead, the main brunt of the storm brought about 1.35 inches to the city of Napa, with unsettled weather in subsequent days boosting this to about 2.4 inches. That's impressive by this season's standards, but not quite the monster storm that was advertised.
It’s been that kind of year — a La Nina year. This weather pattern that can result in low rainfall years for the Bay Area is linked to cold Pacific Ocean temperatures at the equator.
Southern Napa County has seen most of its rain come with a tenth-of-an-inch here and a few tenths-of-an-inch there. Most storms have been a drop in the bucket, or in the rain gauge.
Pechner said high pressure is allowing only the strongest storms to reach the area. They aren’t so strong by the time they arrive.
Even robust March rains likely wouldn't let Napa County even approach a normal rainfall season. But they could let the county avoid one of its driest rain seasons on record, with data dating back to 1877 at Napa State Hospital.
Napa State Hospital averages about 25 inches annually. This season to date, it has received about 8 inches. More is needed to top the 9.52 inches that fell in 1923-24 or the 12.9 inches that fell in 1938-39.
For that matter, more rain is needed to top the 13.94 inches that fell last year. Napa County is about to be hit with a dry-year double-whammy.
Eldredge said the city of Napa will give preference to its State Water Project water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to save Lake Hennessey water. It should also start using water from much-smaller Milliken Reservoir in the hills above Silverado for the first time since 2017, when the Atlas fire damaged the piping system.
The city at this point isn’t contemplating water rationing, she said. But it wants residents to conserve by doing such things as not yet moving into a summer landscape water schedule.
Pechner is concerned about gusty offshore winds that have hit the area about every month lately, as opposed to usually being confined to the fall. Napa County had a bout of winds this past week.
“If that continues and we get offshore winds when the grass begins to turn, you can see we will have a very early fire season,” he said.
Whatever happens, people should keep that umbrella handy as the rainy season winds down. The question is whether they’ll need it for rain protection or shade from the warm sun.
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WANT TO LIVE IN DOWNTOWN NAPA? HERE ARE SOME HOMES
Register Square, downtown Napa.
Register Square, downtown Napa.
Register Square in downtown Napa
Looking northeast onto Second St. from one unit at Register Square in downtown Napa.
Register Square in downtown Napa
Construction on the final phase of Register Square in downtown Napa is moving closer to completion. A total of 51 homes will be built, priced from $779,000 to $1.6 million. More than half are already sold.
Register Square parking
Broker Scot Hunter gives a tour of the first floor parking garage at Register Square in downtown Napa.
Register Square in downtown Napa
Construction on the final phase of Register Square in downtown Napa is moving closer to completion. A total of 51 homes will be built, priced from $779,000 to $1.6 million. More than half are already sold. This is an interior courtyard for one set of homes.
Register Square in downtown Napa
A view, looking southeast, from one unit at Register Square in downtown Napa.
Register Square downtown Napa
A view, looking east, from the new Register Square development in downtown Napa.
Register Square in downtown Napa
New homes at Register Square in downtown Napa.
Phase one of Register Square in downtown Napa.
Phase one of Register Square in downtown Napa. This lot used to be overflow parking for the Napa Register.
An inside courtyard at Register Square in downtown Napa.
An inside courtyard at Register Square in downtown Napa.
Register Square housing
Napa's Register Square, under construction. This block is the former home of the Napa Register.
Register Square
Napa's Register Square, under construction. This block is the former home of the Napa Register.
Register Square in Napa
Napa's Register Square, under construction. This block is the former home of the Napa Register.
Napa housing
A row of new housing units at Register Square in Napa.
A view onto Third Street from Register Square in downtown Napa.
A view onto Third Street from Register Square in downtown Napa.
Geoff McComic at Register Square in downtown Napa.
Geoff McComic at Register Square in downtown Napa.
The space between townhomes at Register Square in downtown Napa.
The space between townhomes at Register Square in downtown Napa.
Geoffrey McComic of Vesta Pacific Development at the new Register Square townhomes in downtown Napa.
Geoffrey McComic of Vesta Pacific Development at the new Register Square townhomes in downtown Napa.
You can reach Barry Eberling at 256-2253 or beberling@napanews.com.
February 28, 2021 at 01:00AM
https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napa-county-needs-wet-march-to-avoid-super-dry-rain-season/article_32982cb0-ae13-55b8-b0e3-2259e0856ca7.html
Napa County needs wet March to avoid super-dry rain season - Napa Valley Register
https://news.google.com/search?q=dry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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