Wet May takes bite out of drought

Even as news reports were revealing another drought year in the Sierra, a wet May brought double, and in places triple, the normal moisture for the month giving the snowpack that feeds the Carson River basin a shot in the arm.

According to figures released by the National Weather Service on Thursday, Grover Hot Springs and Markleeville received three times their normal moisture for the month. More importantly, sites in the high Sierra, like Blue Lakes and Ebbetts Pass received nearly twice their average moisture for the month.

May is not a big moisture producer, but the snow that fell during the month left Ebbetts, the main source of the East Fork at 100 percent for the first half of the water year and just over 4 inches short of the total for the entire year. Blue Lakes ended May with 91 percent of average. Caples Lake is less than 4 inches short of the year's total. Monito Pass is 3 inches short, as is Poison Flat. The water year begins Oct. 1 and runs through September.

Rains in the first week of June will help Valley locations like Minden, which received 70 percent of its average moisture for the month and is 64 percent for the year and Carson City which sits at only half of its average moisture.

On average, 8.38 inches of moisture fall in Minden during the year. Ebbetts Pass receives 55.98 inches of moisture during an average year. So far this year, Ebbetts has seen 51.42 inches of moisture.