Wet weather slows development in Merced

Recent storms in the Merced area have slowed construction, but that’s typical of a normal winter, according to Merced’s director of development services, David Gonzalves.

Construction continued Friday on projects such as a 10,410-square-foot Les Schwab Tire Center downtown and a 100-unit apartment building in north Merced. The dirt in the area is soggy, but rain held off during the day.

Gonzalves said it’s typical for projects to slow down during the winter as developers expect more rain. Home construction slows down the most but will likely pick up in the spring, he said.

“Especially when they’re prepping soil or trying to pour foundation or do plumbing work, that’s normal,” he said. “So, yes, there has been a small slowdown when we have wet weather.”

Les Schwab got its soil treatment out of the way before the rains came, he said.

Rain is expected to hit the Merced area this weekend with the greatest chance predicted late Saturday through Sunday, according to Scott Rowe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford. Storms will come sooner to the foothills and Sierra.

That warmer rain coming down on the heavy snowpack in the Sierra can lead to flash floods, he said, so the service issued warnings through Saturday afternoon. Accumulations of 1 to 2 inches are predicted at higher elevations.

Merced is forecast to get 0.5 to 0.75 inches through Monday. In the first month of 2016, Merced has accumulated 4 inches of rain, which is better than the 2.45-inch average.

Most of the rain in the region has been from colder storms from the Alaska region, which is good for the state’s water storage, Rowe said. “That will help lower snow levels and provide a very good pack at least in a larger area of the Sierras,” he said.

The Sierra Nevada snowpack is at 115 percent of normal – more than the drought-stricken state has seen in five years, officials said this week. The electronic reading by the state Department of Water Resources was the highest since it reached 129 percent in 2011. The Sierra snowpack contributes nearly one-third of California’s water when it melts in the spring.

However, officials say, the snowpack would have to be at 150 percent of normal by April 1 to ease the four-year drought. State water managers have said reservoirs remain far below average levels for this time of year, despite the wet winter.

Officials on Tuesday slightly increased the amount the state intends to provide to cities and farms from 10 percent to 15 percent of their contracted supply. The figure still falls short of last year’s 20 percent allocation.

“Our modest increase underscores the fact that we still have a critical water shortage after four-plus years of drought that we don’t know when will end,” said Mark Cowin, water agency director.

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Wet weather slows development in Merced."