June wraps up the water season – how did Almanor fare?

By Dale Knutsen

Special to Plumas News

Different agencies use different definitions of the “water year” or “water season.”  A few use the calendar year, some go from October through September, and others use July through June.  The latter case has been the choice for the Lake Almanor basin for some time, starting and ending at a dry point in our usual season.  And that leads to an update on both the month of June and the full 2021-2022 water year.

Not surprisingly, we had no new snow in June and our season accumulated snowfall remains at 107 inches on the west shore, or 84 percent of the long-term average.  The light snowpack in the upper elevations translates to reduced spring and summer runoff.

In terms of total precipitation, we did better locally.  During June we received 0.81 inch of rainfall on the west shore, which brought our season accumulation to 30.58 inches of water, or 96 percent of average.  That’s considerably higher than our two previous seasons and is a boost to our remaining local vegetation.

June temperatures were a about a degree or so higher than average, with an average early morning low of 42.3 degrees F. and an average afternoon high of 78.2 degrees F.  Our extreme low for the month was 32 degrees and our extreme high was 92, as registered at the Chester airport.