Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

Happy New Water Year 2016 from Mono Lake

Sunrise light on a grove of tufa towers emerging from the water of Mono Lake with soft green and dusty-red wild grasses in the foreground, Canada geese in the shallow water with reflections of the rocky towers, and desert hills in the distance.

October 1st marks the start of a new water year. The 2016 water year runs October 1, 2015–September 30, 2016. It measures the fall-winter precipitation and the rain that falls in the following growing season all in one 12-month period.

Here is how last year stacks up for Lee Vining precipitation: 11.84 inches, or 84% of average. The remarkable thing is that the fall-winter was the lowest on record, at only 34% of average, meaning the snowpack was the lowest on record. Summer was highest on record, at 285% of average.

The remarkable thing about the 2015 water year was that it was the driest fall-winter on record and the wettest spring-summer on record.
The remarkable thing about the 2015 water year was that it was the driest fall-winter on record and the wettest spring-summer on record.
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2 Comments

  1. Rather remarkable year.
    The worst of one and the best of the other.

    My wife and I missed the regular “winter” but enjoyed some of the “second winter” in May.

    Hello 2015-16.