I'm not sure Wes but our reservoirs here are filled primarily by snow pack. Rain helps, of course, but the tremendous snowfall will probably be more significant.
I've read about farmers taking fields out of production. There are other issues. One is the costs of production which include, but aren't limited to water. Another, the allocations made in accordance with the compacts signed with various states and Mexico parceling out water from the Colorado river and other resources. California has always, almost always, been able to draw more than it's allocation in the past because the others weren't. They have been doing so lately and the Mexican farmers across the border have been demanding access to what they are promised at the same time. IOW, demand is up and due to the years long drought on the West coast, supply is way down.
California is very productive agriculturally because we have a year round growing season but most of the farms are in what most of the world considers the middle or edges of arid territory. You need a lot of water to grow things in the desert.
Orange County sits on one of North America's largest aquifers and they manage their water very well. They have been rationing water for about a year now I believe but they just added reclamation capacity and I think they are up to 50 million gallons per day with their effort.
============ To amplify Gunner's observation with a regional news item about one of the state's most affluent areas see:
formatting link
From rustic vineyards to elegant country clubs, the rolling hills of El Dorado County paint a picture of quiet wealth.
But the recession is taking a toll on an area that traditionally has been one of the most privileged in California.
El Dorado County's unemployment rate was 12.6 percent in December, matching Yolo's for the highest three-year jump in the Sacramento region. Foreclosures continue to batter the area, with
889 homes lost in the county last year, 150 more than in 2008.
Perhaps most startling for an area that boasts $35,000 club memberships and $100 pedicures, the number of people dependent on food stamps in El Dorado County jumped 31 percent between September 2008 and September 2009, according to the California Budget Project.
That number is more than five points higher than the statewide increase, and the biggest jump in the region. "We're not seeing a slowdown. We're probably up (over last year) around 35 to 40 percent now," said Cynthia Wallington, program manager in the county's Department of Human Services.
=========
Be sure and at least scan the reader comments.
Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).
============= More information on actual under- and un- employment rates in the U.S. continues to dribble in, much of it in the foreign press.
formatting link
GMT, Friday, 5 February 2010 US jobless numbers hide scale of problem
By John Mervin Business reporter, BBC News, New York
The headline number only reveals a small part of the problem.
So a common comparison these days is the recession of 1982-83 - that's the last time America grappled with 10% unemployment.
Which means it's chilling to note that it now takes twice as long (more than 20 weeks) as it did in 1982-83 for an unemployed person to find their next job.
Unemployment is always nasty. But it's even worse when it's accompanied not just by stress and anxiety but by real deprivation.
That is the experience of increasing numbers of Americans as unemployment benefits run out before the next job can be found.
Bigger number
Read a little further through the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly report and jobless rates that are already way too high for comfort, only get higher.
President Obama
Like all developed economies, the US has arrived at its method of counting the unemployed over many years and via some controversial choices.
As a consequence, the headline unemployment rate, the one that's still stubbornly close to 10%, is in fact a rather narrow measure.
To be counted in that oft-reported tenth of the labour force you have to be out of work, and have actively looked for a job in the past four weeks.
It's the four weeks requirement that cuts out a lot of people who would undoubtedly like a job, if there were any jobs to be applied for, much less secured.
Don't worry, the Bureau does count those people - it just doesn't count them in the official unemployment rate, the one that gets reported first and most frequently by journalists battling for space and air time.
Instead, they get defined as things like "marginally attached" or "discouraged" workers.
This allows the Bureau to offer "alternative measures of labour underutilisation", which, to the untrained ear, sounds like awful gobbledygook and unemployment by another name.
And if you take the widest of these measures, which in plain English counts everyone who doesn't have a full time job, and blames that on economic reasons (as opposed to blaming it on being sick, old, or in training) then America's "labour underutilisation" rate went past 17% at about the time its "unemployment" rate hit 10%.
A rate of 17% presents everyone with a picture of an American economy where more than one in six people who want a job, can't get one.
Because if America's economy has moved out of recession, it remains mired in an unemployment crisis.
FWIW -- the essential first step in solving any problem is identifying it.
Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.