Valley farmers hope for more rain as water allocations are scarce

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Water is liquid gold to Valley farmers. But getting some of it partly depends on geography.

"You're looking at the tale of two sides of the Valley when it come to what's going on in the water situation right now. For those east side districts that rely upon that water from the Sierra above us, from the San Joaquin River watershed, Kings River, those are below average but still looking to be a decent year because of the carryover from last year," said Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen.

The west side, on the other hand, could be doing better.

"They are looking pretty dismal as far as what the current allocation is. It was updated to 35% last week, we would expect it to be much better, given the circumstances," said Jacobsen.

That revised allocation from the Department of Water Resources is actually up 15% from February.

He says on a year like this, when precipitation is above average, that allocation should be around 50% or 60% right now.

But there is hope, in the clouds.

"These types of storms can make a difference when it comes to the overall supply. If you're adding 5% or 10% on these couple of storms, that's something and so it does add up over time," said Jacobsen.

Currently, the statewide snowpack is 98% of average for this date.

As those storms roll in though, they do bring some concerns for farmers.

"By far, the most riskiest thing we see this time of year is hail and the potential for hail so as these storms roll through, we're going to be watching that very closely just hoping that we don't get underneath one of those clouds that can be very devastating, very quickly here for Valley farmers," said Jacobsen.

The next Sierra snowpack survey is scheduled for next week, which could revise the allocations again.

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