Though they brought serious flooding, epic fall rains in Sonora mean dam levels are ending the year up over last year.
Through the summer, Sonora’s dam system was at a deficit, spelling trouble for the state’s sizable agricultural sector, according to Lucas Antonio Oroz, the region’s technical director for the National Water Commission. But then intense fall rains changed that picture: nearly 1.9 billion cubic meters were captured by the system in recent months That’s about a million and a half acre-feet..
“And the average that normally enters the system is 591 [million],” he said. “That’s the scale of what September and November left for us.”
As of the most recent report, the state’s dams stood at 66.4% capacity, up roughly 5% from the same time last year.
Oroz said that will allow for more acreage planted and may have saved the cattle industry from a crisis. Much of the state’s agricultural output is destined for export.
