The warm spring-like weather not only has the fish and fishermen confused but wildlife as well. In fact, wild tom turkeys are already starting to strut, which is at least a month before the breeding season starts.
Normally by the first of February the weather is cold, rainy and windy. The lake level should also be well over 3 feet on the Rumsey Gauge, but not this year. Just when we had a series of storms and thought everything was going to be normal, the skies cleared and the temperatures rose again.
From all indications it will take a “March Miracle” to get back to normal, just don”t count on it. There is nothing in the long-range forecast pointing to a wet February or March. The last time the lake level was this low was on Jan. 14, 2009 when the lake level was only 1.19 feet. That year the lake level peaked in April at 4.13 feet on the Rumsey Gauge. By September in 2009, the lake level was down to .82 feet.
If we only receive two or three inches of rainfall for the rest of the winter, the lake level would slowly recede as the water evaporates. Evaporation causes about a 3-foot drop per year in the lake level, so it could be possible for the level to drop near zero on the Rumsey Gauge by late summer. The lake level must be at 3.22 feet on the Rumsey Gauge as of May 1 before Yolo County is allowed to draw any water from the lake. The lake has failed to reach 3.22 feet by May 1 only twice in the past 50 years (the drought of 1976-77). The lake level has failed to reach 5 feet or greater only 21 times since 1873.
Water is not only a rich commodity for Lake County residents, but for the farmers in Yolo County as well. Their crops depend on sufficient water and Clear Lake and Indian Valley Reservoir are the prime sources of that water. If Yolo County can”t draw water from Clear Lake the farmers must pump from wells, which is very expensive. There are few restrictions on Yolo County drawing water from Indian Valley Reservoir. This year the reservoir is nearly 75 percent full.
Clear Lake has seen severe droughts in past years, the worst being in 1977 when the maximum lake level was a minus-.3 feet on the Rumsey Gauge. That year the lake level in November dropped to a minus-3.39 feet and the county received a total of only 12.46 inches of rainfall for the entire year. Because of the drought the shoreline extended out into the lake for more than one-half a mile in many areas.
The warmer-than-normal weather this winter has already resulted in some algae blooms and the aquatic weeds are starting to grow. Last week I checked out a couple of areas in the north end of the lake with my underwater camera and found weeds sprouting to several inches off the bottom. If the lake level doesn”t rise by at least 3 more feet there will be an explosion of weeds such as we experienced last year.
The good news is that the county is already planning for excessive weed growth and algae blooms. Last summer the mechanical weed harvesters did a fantastic job controlling the weeds in Soda Bay and Corinthian Bay and hopefully the program will be expanded to include more of the lake. The major obstacle will be funding. The harvesters don”t come cheap and with the county hurting for money it will be a challenge to come up with the money to bring back the harvesters and to do more research on algae control.
Of course, all this concern about a lack of water could change with a couple of major storms. Actually a week or two of rainy weather will have many of the residents complaining about too much water. As the old saying goes “We can”t control the weather.”
