While the recent rain and snow this past spring was a nice break from the dry weather we saw during the winter months, hydrologists say it was too little too late to get us out of a drought. Tahoe City saw 6.78” of liquid precipitation from January through May of 2022, which is the fourth driest on record since 1910.
"Our drought status as of now, by the U.S. Drought Monitor we're in a severe drought in our region. It's actually a bit worse on the west side of the crest especially the southern Sierra on the west side of Sierra Nevada is in worse shape,” said hydrologist Tim Bardsley.
There is a slight improvement from a year ago when most of the region was in an extreme to an exceptional drought. After a big atmospheric river event in October and a good amount of snow in December, we started out the year with a slightly less severe drought, and by February we were doing even better in a moderate to severe drought. Now most of northern Nevada is back in the severe drought stage. May was a pretty dry month overall. The Sierra did get some snow in May, but April was more active overall.
While the Sierra got some rain and snow in May, only .01 of an inch of precipitation fell at the Reno Airport during the month of May, which is the 12th driest on record. It was the second driest January through May on record in Reno, with slightly less than three fourths of an inch falling at the airport. South Lake Tahoe picked up .40” of liquid precipitation in May, which is .92” below normal.
"Summertime thunderstorms are so localized that do not help broadly in a drought,” said Bardsley.
We’ll have to wait until next fall to really see some improvement. Long term forecasts are showing a hotter than normal summer which could make our drought worse. A cool and wet summer would keep the drought from progressing, but it is very unlikely that we could make a lot of progress during the summer months. Bardsley says our cooler spring helped delay the melt out process. Fingers crossed that next year’s snow season will be better.
