If you're thinking an El Nino winter will end California's three-year drought, think again.
California is getting a thorough soaking this week, but these storms hardly represent a drought-busting event.
The water deficit in the Valley is just too deep.
And, experts say because of court-ordered restrictions on pumping from the Sacramento Delta, central and southern California will still see water shortages this summer.
"We expect our state water allocation will be between 10 and 40 percent of normal, which really gives you a feel for not only the hydrologic drought we're in, but the regulatory impacts of some of the measures that are in place, said Jim Beck, General Manager of Kern County Water Agency.
Beck says nearly a million-acre feet of water has been extracted from Kern's water table over the last three years.
And while the rain and snow are good news for our water table and mountain snowpack, it would take a storm of Biblical proportions to reverse three years of drought.
"Right now, most of our reservoirs are below average coming out of the third year of drought, some as low as 30 percent or less in a lot of reservoirs. a lot of water that we stored last year has been recovered from banking projects, like the Kern Water Bank and other projects in Kern," added Beck.
One thing's for certain.
It is prime time to shut off your sprinkler systems at home.
The ground is saturated, and Tim Treloar of the California Water Service Company says there's no reason to water your lawn right now.
"There shouldn't be any sprinklers on during this time frame. And really, probably several days, even a week after this ends," said Tim Treloar, General Manager with California Water Service Company.
And Treloar says if you have drought-resistant plants in your yard, you probably won't have to water them again for a couple of weeks, after these storms pass.
