After a year of historic drought and wildfire, California will go into 2022 cold and wet, with more snow on the ground than it has had at year’s end in a decade.
State water officials, who plan to conduct the first snow survey of the winter on Thursday, are expected to find the snowpack across California’s mountains measuring close to 160% of average for the date.
There’s a white line known as the bathtub ring around Lake Mead. It’s a constant reminder for Boating Lake Mead’s Director of Operations, Bruce Nelson. The lake is at a historically low 1,067-feet above sea level, affecting boat launch ramps and customers.
A series of storms have made for an exceptionally rainy and snowy start to California’s winter season, pushing snowpack and precipitation well above 150% of normal for this time of year and bringing a welcome influx of moisture amid an ongoing drought.
As the calendar prepares to turn into 2022, Northern California is getting covered with snow, and rainfall in Butte County is leading to more water in Lake Oroville.
As of midnight Tuesday, Lake Oroville had 1,323,897 acre-feet of water in it. While that number is 37% of the lake’s capacity, it also reflects 72% of its average storage his time of year.
The deluge of snow in recent days along the Sierra Nevada mountain range has been a record-breaker. And that’s not only good news for ski resorts but it may lead to a healthy boost in hydroelectricity production in California this coming summer, which would help the state’s often-strained electric grid.
As a rainy December comes to close, nearly all Northern California reservoirs were still drier than historic averages for this time of year, according to data from the California Department of Water Resources.
But the precipitation still gave several reservoirs a boost from the beginning of the month.
After months of extreme drought that triggered water shortages and stoked wildfires, heavy snow is falling in the Sierra Nevada — enough to break decades-old records.
The Mount Rose ski area, at 8,900 feet in the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe, had 116 inches of snow Tuesday, with almost 3 feet freshly fallen since the day before Christmas.
The UC Berkeley Central California Snow Lab at Donner Summit on Tuesday morning reported more than 8 inches of snow in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total for December to 202 inches, the third snowiest month on record since 1970.
Industries are advised to brace for more federal moves next year to reduce and control “forever chemicals,” including plans by the EPA to propose water and waste regulations for two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
Water made California.
The statement is often made about what is arguably the largest and most complex water transfer systems ever created by mankind — the California State Water Project — and its kissing cousin the federal Central Valley Project.
