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There has never been another March 8 quite like the one Folsom Lake is experiencing this year.The day will carry extra resonance for the lake as it marks a day in history where water levels reached historic highs compared with any level recorded on the same day.

Dating back to 1976 when the California Department of Water Resources began tracking the water storage levels at Folsom Lake, the 697,938 acre-feet of water beat out the previous high of approximately 650,000 acre-feet recorded for March in 1982, according to the DWR.

A wet weekend flooded roads and reactivated slides that temporarily closed State Route 299, and even more precipitation is ahead for across Humboldt County this week. “Our crews have been out there working throughout the night responding to literally dozens of incidents,” Caltrans public information officer Phil Frisbie said on Sunday.

The landslide that closed State Route 299 at Big French Creek near Big Bar in Trinity County for multiple days in January reactivated due to rains and both lanes were closed Saturday evening.

 

After three years of an unprecedented drought, a “Godzilla” El Niño formed in the western Pacific. Previous years with strong El Niños had been unusually wet, with the warm patch sending one wet system after another rolling into the region. California had essentially missed two years’ worth of precipitation. Surveying the wet season to come last fall, meteorologists said that El Niño was how it might restore the balance.

Now, six weeks remain in the state’s annual rainy season, and results are mixed.

With El Niño rains returning in earnest, dam operators ramped up water releases Monday from Folsom Lake as a precaution against flooding. They will double the intensity of the releases early Tuesday.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it raised the release levels to 8,000 cubic feet per second early Monday afternoon, nearly doubling the velocity from the weekend. The releases will go to 15,000 cubic feet per second Tuesday morning as a series of winter storms continues to pound the region.

On March 1, the Delta Counties Coalition (DCC) officially supported legislation that prohibits the construction of the peripheral canal, twin tunnels or other isolated conveyance project unless approved by California voters. The coalition, which represents Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo counties, expressed its support in a letter addressed to state Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton.

“The people most impacted by the twin tunnels project must have the right to vote to approve or disapprove the project,” the letter read.