FARMERS NEED RAIN

With warmer weather returning to the valley, the chance is fading for a snowy and wet March that farmers desperately need.

KMPH Fox 26 meteorologist Kevan Ramer says we may be in for another dry year.

“In the last decade, we only had two different years we had 100 percent snowpack,” Ramer said. “Right now we are way behind on snowpack.”

In the record-setting month of December, the snowpack was at 165 percent. Now it is 35 percent below normal.

Rain is a short-term solution for farmers. Snow is what really matters because the snowpack replenishes the groundwater supply that they rely on in the dry years.

Farmer Daniel Hartwig has an interesting comparison of groundwater.

“Always like to talk about our groundwater supply as savings account,” Hartwig said. “If you think of a bank account, your groundwater is like a bank. Your groundwater is a savings account, and if you get surface water brought in and it rains, and you get water delivered to you, that is a checking account. When we have to keep pulling water out of our savings account, that’s a huge problem.”

The CEO of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, Ryan Jacobsen, is coming to terms with another dry March.

“We had the driest January and February on record. We’re looking like a very dry March. So at this point, very little is going to change this year unless this year we have an extraordinary April and May.”

If the dry spell continues, farmers could be in for another tough year.