A fourth day of driving rain across southern California had pushed rainfall by late Monday in Los Angeles to 32" since the start of October. The period which begins Oct. 1 is referred to as the "water year" by climatologists
A fourth day of driving rain across southern California had pushed rainfall by late Monday in Los Angeles to 32" since the start of October. The period which begins Oct. 1 is referred to as the "water year" by climatologists, and coincides with the arrival of the region's wet season as Pacific storms move inland. But, what's happened this season is almost without precedent over much of the central and southern sections of the West. The nearly 3 feet of rain which has fallen in Los Angeles in the past four months is seven times the amount which fell during the same period a year ago and more than three times normal. Record floods in recent months on rivers in southern Utah and Nevada as well as northern Arizona--rivers which flow into Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam--have pushed the lake levels 7.5 feet higher. And an additional rise of 2.5 feet is expected by month's end. Only months ago, concern over extraordinarily low lake levels was high. Nearby Lake Powell is expected to rise with spring snowmelt in surrounding mountains. The effects of five unin