Enough Rain?

salmo

salmo

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South Jersey
I note that SE Pa. has received around 13 inches of rain since Labor Day this year (according to the gauge at Valley Creek in Valley Forge Park). I was wondering if:

1. Is this enough to relieve the drought conditions in SE Pa.?

2. Has there been a similar amount of rainfall in the area of the Upper Delaware and the New York City Reservoirs?

3. What are the conditions in those Reservoirs?

4. How has North Central Pa done with rainfall during the same time period?

5. Has there been enough rainfall in the NC Pa. area to have the streams running again?

For the record it is raining in SE Pa today and my Jersey lawn is looking pretty green.
 
We had a good bit of rain in Gloucester Twp. this morning as well.
 
I think you can just look at the graphic of the USGS stream flows right over here >>>

That should give you a general answer to most of your questions.

My answer = no, not enough rain here in SE PA.

 
We are still a little low in north central MD near the PA line. Seems like most of the reservoirs I've seen are down some, but not severe.

Not sure we had the same 13 inches over the last four months. The last 3-4 weeks have helped, but probably could use another 3-6 inches over the next couple of months and we'll be good again. Living on a well I like to see the ground water level in a good spot.

Looks like the northeast is generally better. Even California has improved over the last few months on Palmer Drought Index. Some good data on the national level.

 
Here is a link for precip for the last 90 days. You can toggle to change parameters. Drought getting better, but not out of the woods quite yet.

https://water.weather.gov/precip/index.php?analysis_date=1482969600&lat=39.7904227710&location_name=CONUS_%20_Puerto_Rico&location_type=us&lon=-77.4815804886&precip_layer=0.61&product=departure&recent_type=today&rfc_layer=-1&state_layer=-1&hsa_layer=-1&county_layer=-1&time_frame=last90days&time_type=recent&units=eng&zoom=7&domain=current

 
Muddy Creek, York County was extremely low for this time of year when I was there on 12/26. I crossed the Juniata River near Bedford on the PA Turnpike on Christmas Eve. Better than September/October but still far below what it would be at this time of year. Conestoga River has muddied up a few times recently but level is still very low.

We need a lot more precipitation to return things to normal in PA.
 
Those are all good finds and I didn't know about them.

Tom the AHPS seems to be pretty much match what would have thought has been going on recently. I guess the good news is the next few months typically are pretty wet and have low evaporation rates.

But, more than likely it will just mean flooding in early May.
 
dkile wrote:
Those are all good finds and I didn't know about them.

Tom the AHPS seems to be pretty much match what would have thought has been going on recently. I guess the good news is the next few months typically are pretty wet and have low evaporation rates.

But, more than likely it will just mean flooding in early May.
Click to expand...


GIYF... :p
 
Well, I for one won't feel too confident about our water levels until I see a much more positive trend on this graph for Big Spring flows:

https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/uv?cb_00060=on&cb_00065=on&format=gif_stats&site_no=01569460&period=&begin_date=2016-06-01&end_date=2016-12-30

That blue line trend is ugly, record lows and still dropping if I'm reading it right....

And our local reservoirs are still shockingly low, these passing showers just ain't cutting it, at least here in South Central. Drove by Lake Redman in York County on Christmas it it's drawn down crazy low.
 
tomitrout wrote:
Drove by Lake Redman in York County on Christmas it it's drawn down crazy low.
Click to expand...

The reason for Lake Redman being so low is to allow a new pumping station to be built close to the dam.

Link
 
Gotcha, thanks. We're still low here regardless, Long Pine Reservoir and the ones to the south in Michaux are still drawn down awfully low.
 
2017 seems to be starting out right with another .3 inches of rain so far today and more on the way. It's a beautiful light soaking rain on unfrozen ground. With very little in the way of uptake by the greenery it wil go mostly into the water table.
 
Western PA seems to be back in pretty good shape as of recently. The USGS gauges have stayed green for a while now and the rain has been much more consistent.
 
Yeah, and when you look at that map there on the sidebar, draw a line from that red dot in York County on the Codorus up to the yellow dot on Spring Creek in Centre City.....whole lotta red/yellow in that zone, and a lot of it is spring fed influenced.

Edit to add link to bigger picture:

https://waterwatch.usgs.gov/?m=real&r=pa

Click on those "unranked" sites, lots of those are well below averages. Mountain freestones might be looking good right now, but if we don't get a big recharge for the groundwater, a lot of our classic trout streams could be in for a rough ride...Chicken Little, I hope, fingers crossed.
 
As far as the NYC supplies go....not very promising. The further east you go, the higher the lake levels. Cannonsville has got to be 25% - 35% lower than the norm for this time of year. This is the major contributor of cold water to the Main Stem which has me concerned. Pepacton is also quite low. Lots of snow and rain will be needed to fill them back up. Doubt we'll see either of them get near capacity.

Closer to me, Clarks is very low. All of the tiny feeders are pretty much dry. Still quite dry.
 
It seems the pattern for the last 8-2 months has been wetter around Pittsburgh and Philly while being much, much drier along the northern border of the state. Hope things shift a little over the next couple of months.
 
Probably not, I say this after looking at the rainfall amounts for the year around the Commonwealth, posted on the NOAA web site under Climate.
 
Well, the USGS map sure has a different look to it than it had not too long ago. I just hope things stay on a similar course.
 
be better if all this rain were snow and was planning on hanging around for a few more months.
 
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