Santa Barbara County Sees a Dry Start to the Water Year

By the first of December, Santa Barbara County usually receives 15 percent of the water year’s rainfall, but this year, it sits at a woeful 2 percent. Lake Cachuma, the source of water for most of South County, is 65.5 percent full, however, and its constituent water agencies learned last month that they would receive 100 percent of their water allocation from Cachuma.

The lake is fed by the watershed formed by the hills surrounding the Santa Ynez River, which is captured by Jameson and Gibraltar reservoirs before flowing to Cachuma and then to the Pacific Ocean at Surf Beach near Lompoc. Gibraltar has received a relative sprinkle — 0.19 inches — this water year, which started on September 1, compared to its average 3 inches by this time. But rainfall in the county is fickle. The 100 years on record for Gibraltar note as little as zero inches in 10 Novembers past and as high as 17 inches in 1965.