RAIN on the way!!!

I know some of you live east of the Rockies and you guys have rain and snow, but here in California we are in the middle of the worst drought I've ever seen!  We have mandatory water cutbacks and cities aren't allowed to waste water.

We do have a late storm heading our way, however, and we're hoping for snow up in our local mountains and maybe even some RAIN down here in the desert!  Wouldn't that be great?

Actually, we don't rely on rain for our water source.  Under Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, there is a huge aquifer.  When the snow arrives on our local mountains (5,000 to 8,000 to 10,000 feet high), it melts.  And, when it melts, it goes down into the aquifer.  It takes 8 years for that water to get there and to be used again (I learned this from a field trip to our local water district).  We haven't had much snow in the last several years, however, so even our aquifer is drying out and the water districts, which already have wells down to 1,500 feet, may have to drill down further.

So, we are looking forward to the rain and mountain snow today!   :-)  It's too early to actually see much this morning, but this is the view from the Toro Peak webcam, looking east.  It is at 8,717 feet.