CENTRAL VALLEY, Calif. (KFSN) — Central California’s wet season is off to an active start.<\/p>\n
“Since October 1st, you can see Fresno and Merced are both already at 7 inches of rain,” ABC30 meteorologist Christine Gregory stated.<\/p>\n
The rounds of wet weather through the holidays served as good news for farmers.<\/p>\n
“It’s helping build our water supply for this upcoming year. No problems here locally when it comes to agriculture,” Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO, Ryan Jacobsen said.<\/p>\n
This time last year, we had about 3 inches of rain, but now we’re ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
“We’ve accumulated about of what we do in a normal year, so it’s quite a bit of rain,” Gregory explained. “We’re about 2-3 inches above average for these areas.”<\/p>\n
Farmers in the Central Valley are grateful for the rain so far, but keeping their eyes on the snowpack as the year’s first survey last week revealed it’s at 71% of average statewide.<\/p>\n
“These have been very warm storms putting that snow at a higher elevation and not building in that midlevel where we also need some snow this time of year,” Jacobsen said. “We still need additional storms.”<\/p>\n
However, the future water outlook is tricky.<\/p>\n
“Climate prediction center does put us at or below average in terms of rainfall,” Gregory stated. “That doesn’t mean we’re not going to get any more rain, but it may signal that we may see a slowdown in the storm track.”<\/p>\n
That drier weather is a concern for farmers.<\/p>\n
“Right now, we’re in good shape if we get average storms through the rest of the season, but if it does completely turn off and we’ve seen that in the last decade, that becomes problematic because we’re not in great shape when it comes to the next upcoming season,” Jacobsen explained.<\/p>\n
Farmers are remaining hopeful for more storms.<\/p>\n
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