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Memorial Day weekend is usually the start of summer for most of the country. For Lake Tahoe, it’s really the end of winter. This coming weekend won’t be any different. While the forecast is for sunny skies and highs in the mid- to high 60s, the remnants of winter will likely be felt by people who are near any body of water and on hiking-biking trails. The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a flood watch that is in effect through 11pm May 24 for South Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Bridgeport, Mammoth Lakes, Stateline, Incline Village, Carson City, Reno and Gardnerville.

During California’s epic five-year drought, most of the state’s irrigation districts didn’t comply with a 2007 law that requires them to account for how much water they’re delivering directly to farmers, a Bee investigation has found. State regulators are largely powerless to stop them, but they don’t seem too bothered by it. They say they’d rather switch to a different form of reporting. Farm-advocacy groups say irrigation districts have been bombarded with a confusing slew of state and federal laws and regulations that often have overlapping reporting requirements, so it’s no wonder their compliance rates are low.

The Department of Water Resources ramped down the Oroville Dam flood control spillway flows from 20,000 cubic feet per second to zero cfs on Friday. With no more water gushing down the spillway, contractors working for DWR will start working full-time to shore up the badly damaged spillway before next winter. Flows to the Feather River were gradually reduced over multiple days, water officials said. The Lake Oroville water level was at 829.49 feet at the time the spillway gates were closed. The maximum water level is 901 feet.

Californians, blessed with the natural resources to ski and surf in the same day, may be able do both deep into summer for the first time in years. One of the wettest winters in decades has stretched the season for most California and Nevada ski resorts by up to two months, helping them regain business lost because of too much snow early in the year. At Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierra and Squaw Valley west of Lake Tahoe, the slopes are expected to remain open through the Fourth of July weekend — and perhaps beyond.