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Torrents of meltwater coursed down the granite crevices below the moonscape of the Desolation Wilderness. Just miles from its source in the High Sierra, the South Fork of the American River was already roaring down toward the oaken foothills, bursting over the spillways of dams that humans had erected to control it. As it moved, it gathered streams and rivulets — pink and brown and orange from the minerals they leached. The heavy rain turned dusty creek beds into full-fledged tributaries. Running through narrowing clefts they burst forth as from hydraulic jets.

With all the rain recently, San Diegans are wondering whether the severe drought in California is over and if they should continue to conserve. Another big question—will water bills decrease? San Diego County is primarily a water importer, so this year’s wet winter weather is helping our water supply. The snowpack from where the county gets its water from is 140 percent of the average amount, which will replenish the Colorado River Basin.

The state’s biggest reservoirs are swelling. The Sierra Nevada have seen as much snow, sleet, hail and rain as during the wettest years on record. Rainy Los Angeles feels more like London than Southern California. So is the great California drought finally calling it quits? Yes. Or at least maybe. If the storm systems keep coming, state and regional water managers say, 2017 could be the end of a dry spell that has, for more than five years, caused crops to wither, reservoirs to run dry and homeowners to rip out their lawns and plant cactus.

After more than a week of snow storms in the Sierra Nevada, Mammoth Mountain has more snow than another ski resort in the country.The popular mountain about five hours north of Los Angeles announced Wednesday that it had the deepest base of snow in North America after receiving 10 to 15 feet of snow since the previous Wednesday. Another foot of snow fell by Thursday morning.

 

How much has the California snowpack grown this month? On Jan. 3, the statewide “snow water equivalent,” a measure of the water content of the snow provided the California Cooperative Snow Surveys, stood at 70 percent of normal. By Wednesday morning, the number had more than doubled, to 158 percent of normal. The number could top 170 percent of normal today after Wednesday’s Sierra storm.