March weather will determine Merced irrigation season

Though Merced and the rest of the Valley received a soaking over the weekend and the Sierra was coated in snow, the Merced Irrigation District is hoping for many similar storms in March to ease drought effects.

The water level at Lake McClure is inching up with the storm system that hit the Valley during the first weeks of March. In the past two weeks, the water level has increased about 5 percent. In Northern California, reservoir totals were nearly 90 percent of the historical average, according to the state Department of Water Resources.

But MID is closely monitoring the snowpack and activity in Lake McClure’s watershed, said John Sweigard, the water district’s general manager.

As of March 1, the Merced River Basin’s snowpack was 89 percent of average, according to the Department of Water Resources. The Merced River feeds into Lake McClure.

“It was a good storm,” Sweigard said, “and we definitely need a couple more storms like that in March.”

With current numbers, Sweigard said the district is tentatively budgeting to deliver about 1.75 acre-feet per acre to Class I growers, but March numbers could change that. MID will present more information at its board of directors meeting next week.

“We’re pretty confident we’ll attain that,” he said. “Hopefully, we can improve upon that. March will be a big factor.”

Last year at this time, MID announced there would be no irrigation water.

The weekend storm dropped more than 1 inch of rain on Merced, according to data from the National Weather Service in Hanford. As of Tuesday afternoon, Merced had received nearly 10 inches of rain since the season began in October. That’s nearly double the amount received during the same period of the previous year.

Jim Andersen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said a few storms will drop additional rain this week and the beginning of next week before a ridge of high pressure builds.

A storm predicted to hit Thursday night may drop up to a half-inch of rain, Andersen said.

“It’s not as strong as the last one,” Andersen said, “but we do have a good chance of some rain.”

Next week, small storms are predicted for Monday and Friday. After that, a the high-pressure ridge will develop over the eastern Pacific, Andersen said.

The upcoming storms will also dust the higher elevations with a bit of snow. Because of the warm temperatures, though, the Sierra likely will only get snow at 9,000 feet and above.

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 6:28 PM with the headline "March weather will determine Merced irrigation season."