For the first time, scientists link heavy snow to groundwater in California
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Set us as preferred For the first time, scientists have found a direct link between the snow that falls on California’s mountains and the groundwater that lies beneath Central Valley farmlands.Analyzing two decades of measurements from NASA satellites, the researchers discovered that after a snowy winter in the Sierra Nevada, the melting snow that runs off the mountains substantially raises water levels underground.The study documents just how important years of heavy snow are for recharging California’s groundwater aquifers.It also reveals that a year with rain but little snow doesn’t benefit the state’s underground water nearly as much.“It really does seem that the snow, rather than the rain, is what drives the groundwater recharge,” said J.T.
Reager, the study’s lead author.“If it rains, a lot of that rain is going to run right off, whereas if it snows, that snow sits there and slowly melts over the entire spring and summer, and provides this nice steady, infiltrating trickle that provides water to farmers, puts more water in reservoirs and also recharges the ground.”In the Central Valley, groundwater has been dropping for decades as wells and pumps pull up water to irrigate crops.
Scientists estimate that since the early 20th century, the Central Valley has lost more groundwater than the total volume of Lake Tahoe.The study backs up something farmers have noticed for years: that the water in their wells sometimes rises in the months after heavy snows in the mountains.Climate & Environment Groundwater has fallen to precarious depths in much of the world.
New research highlights areas that have been able to bring levels back up.Reager, a water scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, worked with colleagues to analyze satellite data and estimate how much recharge has occurred annually in Californi...