Thanks to everyone who reached out last week in response to my newsletter. It’s good to know — but not surprsing — that Terra Firma subscribers care understand, respect and appreciate the agricultural workers who feed us, regardless of their immigration status.
Despite the mostly dry weather we had in January, last week’s storms brought us up to average for the year — making 2025 the third “wet” year we’ve had here in a row. Had those storms arrived after New Years, we would have been facing a very serious flooding situation. Thankfully, the landscape was ready to absorb more rainfall… for a few days. But by the time the heaviest rains arrived on Tuesday, the soil was once again saturated. Our fields began to fill with water and the hills to our north, west and south began sending the runoff down into the creeks. By the end of the day, every waterway in the area was running high and full of brown, muddy water.
All of our farmland sits just a mile or so north or south of Putah Creek, which we use for irrigation either directly through our water district, or indirectly as it is the primary vehicle for recharging our groundwater acquifers. The creek is dammed about 10 miles to the west, forming Lake Berryessa. Most of the time, the creek is lazy and quiet, just 10 or 15 feet across in most spots. But once the reservoir is full, the water enters an uncontrolled spillway which is collequially known as the Glory Hole — a 400 feet tall vertical concrete tunnel that carries the water under the dam and into the creek just below. Berryessa spilled over on Tuesday around 5 pm. I went up to the dam to watch it happen and took this short video, but as of today the water has risen much higher and there is far more water spilling.
The Glory Hole doesn’t spill over that often — the last time it happened was in 2023. Last year it got close — right to the edge — but didn’t quite make it. Sometimes it spills on a sunny day, as the watershed slowly fills up. This time, however, it spilled during one of the more intense storms of the winter. That meant that every other side creek below the dam was also running water into Putah Creek when it happened. Our peaceful, carefully managed creek turned into a raging river virtually overnight.
During the same time, all the low spots and poorly drained areas of our farm filled up with water as well. Luckily we expect big storms this time of year, so those fields were not planted. If they had been, the crops would have been lost.
Thankfully, Mother Nature gave us another break in storms that allowed the flow in the side creeks to slow down and soil in our fields to absorb the water. We have another impactful storm bearing down on us tonight. It will almost certainly cause the side creeks to once again swell and send a torrent of water down Putah Creek, and once again fill our fields with water. But after it passes we may get a nice long dry spell. That would give us an opportunity to get back in the fields to do some work other than harvest, and get more crops planted.
Winters is not the only place in Yolo or Solano Counties where there is now “more than enough” water. Cache Creek, Putah Creek’s sister to our north, is also now flowing essentially uncontrolled as the two reservoirs that feed it are now both completely full and spilling. Both creeks terminate in the Yolo Bypass, the giant, seasonal “inland sea” that you drive over between Davis and Sacramento on I-80. And the Sacramento River, which marks the eastern boundary of Yolo County, is also above flood stage now, at which point it is passively diverted into the bypass as well. The bypass is now as full in February as it has been since 2006. That water will flow slowly south as intended, across hundreds of thousands of acres, slowly draining back into the Sacramento River well downstream of the urban area and eventually be sent down to southern California or flow out to sea.
With both our soils and our reservoirs filled up, we really don’t need or want anymore rain in the near future. Other parts of the state need it more than we do, and hopefully in the coming days they will get some. At this point I’d be happy to share. The later we get into winter, the less beneficial it is to get heavy rain or big storms. Spring planting is just around the corner.
Thanks
Pablito