Sacramento Valley

Sacramento Valley
Valle de Sacramento (Spanish)[1]
Sacramento
The Central Valley of California
Geography
Location	California, United States
Population centers	Redding, Chico, Yuba City, Sacramento
Borders on	Sierra Nevada (east), Cascade Range, Klamath Mountains (north), Coast Range (west), Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta (south)
Coordinates	39°00′N 121°30′W / 39°N 121.5°W / 39; -121.5
Rivers	Sacramento River

The Sacramento Valley (Spanish: Valle de Sacramento)^[2][3] is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the Sacramento River. It encompasses all or parts of ten Northern California counties. Although many areas of the Sacramento Valley are rural, it contains several urban areas, including the state capital, Sacramento.

Comparatively water-rich relative to the other segment of the Central Valley to the south, the San Joaquin Valley, there are slight differences in the crops are typically grown in the Sacramento Valley. Much wetter winters (averaging between 25–60 inches (640–1,520 mm) of annual precipitation in the nearby foothills) and an extensive system of irrigation canals allows for the economic viability of water-thirsty crops such as rice and Juglans hindsii-rootstock walnuts. Since 2010, statewide droughts in California (combined with unprecedented summer heat) have strained both the Sacramento Valley's and the Sacramento metropolitan region's water security.^[4]