how are water levels where you are?

[screener]

We have on the forum a thread about weather in our various locales. I hope to hear similar observations here on how the water levels are noticed from around the world.

Here in BC this spring after a high snowfall our ground water levels are still really low compared to most other years because of the drought we went through last year. rivers and streams seemed to be high early but are dropping off quickly.

We haven't had any rain yet this spring to speak of but then we did have 10 cms of snow last week. Anyway I'm curious to see how others are feeling about their water supply for gardening, farming, firefighting, drinking etc.

[Andrea]

By the sounds of things we aren't too bad here on account of a wet autumn last year. We havn't had that much rain this year, although the past month has seen a reasonable amount.

Just out of interest, is there any website where you can check for this kind of thing?

[Series2]

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology is quite a good resource for the UK.

Part of their summary for April (the last complete month):

River flows in impermeable catchments fell steeply through April and many rivers reported notably low flows around month-end. Rapidly increasing soil moisture deficits caused problems for gardeners and growers and signalled an early termination to the recharge season in most aquifer outcrop areas. However, healthy recharge over the winter of 2006/07 ensured that groundwater levels remain generally in the normal range (albeit below average), and mostly well above those of the late spring in 2006. Above average May rainfall would be particularly welcome in parts of northern England where reservoir stocks normally decline quickly through the late spring.

The also have an up to date table of selected reservoir levels at http://www.nwl.ac.uk/ih/nrfa/monthly...7/04/sm02.html.

We don't seem to have any problems at the moment.

[Andrea]

That's perfect, thanks Series2

[screener]

I haven't found anything quite comparable in Canada but the following site gives an analysis of current conditions. As well Environment Canada site has a lot of info on precipatation forecasts and records.

http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/drought/spring2007_e.htm

I hope to see also personal observations regarding well levels, snow in the mountains, lake and pond heights, watering restrictions, etc.

It was throwing it down yesterday so I suspect water levels here will be fine this summer.

[SierraWoman]

We in California had only 29% of normal snowfall this year. Since there was a surplus last year, our reservoirs are still fairly full, so at this time there is no mandatory water rationing. But we have seen severe drought years in the past with no outside watering allowed. At that time we collected all grey water to keep at least trees and flowers in the yard alive. Lawns turned brown and died everywhere. We hope to install a rainwater catchment system before this coming winter to be better prepared should we have another drought year next year. As a whole, California is quite wasteful with its water, we still need to learn a lesson about conservation.

[screener]

Ground water levels have gone down five or six centimetres in the soil here in the last few days. For the kind of temperatures we're having, ie 30 c, that's not unusual. It is unusual to see these temperatures so early in the year, with seeding still not finished. If the seed doesn't get into moisture it doesn't start to grow.

[Andrea]

Looks like things are in great shape here, with the two resevoirs in the south of England seeing nearly 100% capacity over the past three months.

[screener]

we've had some rain here, nothing like what's happening on that side, but enough to bring soil moisture levels back up to good useful levels.

coastal areas here as usual get more rain and here in the inland less.

Paradox introduced this in the climate change forum, the sky is falling...

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-uoc062507.php

an increase in glacial melt in some areas on top of the warmer climate melting might mean reservoirs will have to get larger to hold more of each years precipitation.