Cachuma Lake Gets More Than Inch Of Rain

Cachuma Lake gets just over an inch of rain during Tuesday’s storm.

The lake is a major source of water for Santa Barbara County but the levels have dropped rapidly due to the drought. Luckily the rain helped some.

“It’s wonderful. It’s starting to get things to turn green again because it’s been dry, dry, dry,” said Beverly Keller.

Keller works at the Cachuma Lake General Store and wants the rain to keep coming.

Although the rain may keep the visitors away for now, it will increase the recreational activity at the lake which the store is eager to get back.

“The lake being down so far, they didn’t do a lot of the fishing tournaments this year,” said Keller.

The low lake levels aren’t just bad for business — the lake is vital source of drinking water.

“We certainly need a lot of water to make a big difference here. We could use several weeks of this, probably 10 more events like this to really put a dent in the drought that we’re currently in,” said Joshua Haggmark, the Santa Barbara acting water resource manager.

Haggmark said the first 10 inches of rain will be absorbed quickly. After that, he said the land will see runoff flow into the reservoirs that will help ease the drought.

He also suggested turning off all sprinklers.

“Rule of thumb is for every inch we get, you can keep your sprinklers off for seven days. If we get two inches, that’s two weeks off,” he said.

Slideshow: First Major Rain Storm in Nine Months Arrives