The Drought And The Rain.

Atlas asked about the rain we've been getting in the last few days. I started typing an answer and as my brain wandered, found a lot to write about so I decided to do a quick post instead.

We've gotten a lot of rain since the beginning of the week, but as far as the drought goes, a drop in the bucket. Of course, National Weather shows all the flooding going on down in Sacramento. That happens because of a couple things. One, the drains just can't handle inches of rain in a short period of time. Two, once you get that rain, "junk" clogs said drains and that adds to the flooding problem.

Last night Highway 80 was flooded in both directions at the Watt Ave over-crossing. It also happened at commute time and with both directions down to one lane, BIG NEWS STORY.

Now let me talk about up here. We get a bunch more rain than the valley. We don't have drains to worry about, the creeks handle the water just fine. The pond went from empty to ready to run out the drain, which makes the pond about 2 feet deep. Not bad for a couple days rain.

Folsom Lake rose 2.47 feet. When you consider how big Folsom Lake is, that's a lot of water. The snow level has been hovering around 7000 ft, so all that rain is running down the American River drainage and into Folsom.

The good and the bad of the last storm is that there is water coming into the lakes, but nothing collecting (snow) up top.

So my take on the storms is this. Let it rain and add some water to the lakes. Besides you don't have to shovel rain. Then in January, February, and March, which is when we usually see the snow here at La Casa Kautz, let it fill up the mountains with snow.

It may not get rid of the drought, but it would sure help.

We're between storms this morning, I'm going fishing.

Oh, Atlas, I've caught more trout on the Thin Mint than any other fly.