For the first time, scientists link heavy snow to groundwater in California
For the first time, scientists have found a direct link between the snow that falls on California’s mountains and the groundwater that lies beneath Central Valley farmlands. Analyzing two decades of measurements from NASA satellites, the researchers discovered that after a snowy winter in the Sierra Nevada, the melting snow that runs off the mountains substantially raises water levels underground. The study documents just how important years of heavy snow are for recharging California’s groundwater aquifers. It also reveals that a year with rain but little snow doesn’t benefit the state’s underground water nearly as much. … The study backs up something farmers have noticed for years: that the water in their wells sometimes rises in the months after heavy snows in the mountains.
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