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closeLast Monday morning my old, stained, backyard rain gauge was still readable. I squinted to learn its verdict on the first shower of the new rain season here in southeastern Paso Robles. I interpreted its measurement as five-hundredths of an inch of rainfall.
The gauge’s once clear plastic is now cloudy yellow. Its newly collected water also contained a summer’s collection of debris, including a seed with attached stem and some miscellaneous chaff. I subtracted two-hundredths of an inch for the debris and interpreted the rest as five-hundredths of an inch.
I usually get a new rain gauge every couple of years. They’re cheap. I already have a new one but I didn’t want to put it out until the summer sun went farther south for the winter.
My rain gauge hasn’t been overworked lately. During the past three rain seasons it’s only measured a total of 25.31 inches. That was 5.31 inches in the 2006-07 season, 12.43 inches in the 2007-08 season, and 7.57 inches in the ’08-09 season. (Rain seasons run from July 1 to the following June 30.)
The total for those three rain seasons was the skimpiest of any three consecutive seasons in my rainfall notebook, which goes back 16 seasons to 1993-94.
As I said, my combined rainfall figure for the past three seasons equals just 25.31 inches. That three-season total is less than some single-season totals in my little book. The 2004-05 season had 25.87 inches; the 1997-98 season 27.8, inches; and the 1994-95 season, 29.8 inches.
According to my unscientific records, my backyard rainfall over the past 16 seasons averaged 14.7 inches per season. Compare that with those totals for the past three seasons: 5.31 inches in 2006-07, 12.43 inches in 2007-08, and 7.57 inches in ’08-09. By the way, the totals for 2006-07 and 2008-09 were the smallest of any in the 16 seasons.
My backyard rain gauge has documented the drought. But the drought and its parent, Mother Nature, aren’t the only ones to blame for the compulsory water rationing here in Paso Robles or for the resulting brown patches in many lawns. We the people are also to blame.
We’re doing a lot more agricultural pumping. For example, a recent report said that from 1997 through 2006, agricultural pumping from the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin increased by almost 9,000 acre-feet, or 18 percent.
Also, back in 1994 when I started my rainfall diary, the population of Paso Robles was 20,440. Today it is about 30,000. The city now has 47 percent more people using its water.
Contact Phil Dirkx at phild2008@sbcglobal.net or 238-2372.
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