With the winter storm season ramping up, rainfall across the state has begun to refill reservoirs. By Tuesday, water reservoirs were at about 64% capacity, well above the 30-year average of 55% for the month of December. After last year’s historically wet winter, many of California’s largest water stores were at or near capacity during the summer months of 2023.
Many of California’s reservoirs are far above their average capacity, but water levels are expected to change as the winter season progresses.
The U.S. Southwest has suffered from years of drought, and until recently, the most severe impacts have been centered around Lake Mead and Lake Powell and much of California. Last year, none of California was free from drought, and more than 16 percent of the state suffered from exceptional drought, which is the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) most extreme classification.
As the final days of summer near, California’s reservoirs are in a position they have not been in for some time, they still have a significant amount of water in them.
As of Thursday, all but Trinity Reservoir near Redding and Casitas near Ventura, are at or above their historic average levels, according to the California Department of Water data exchange.
California’s two biggest reservoirs are all but full after reaching perilously low levels late last year. Lake Shasta, at 96% full, and Lake Oroville, at 100%, had fallen to around 25% to 30% of their capacity before the state’s historically wet winter rejuvenated them.
Water levels fell so low in key reservoirs during the depth of California’s drought that boat docks sat on dry, cracked land and cars drove into the center of what should have been Folsom Lake.
Those scenes are no more after a series of powerful storms dumped record amounts of rain and snow across California, replenishing reservoirs and bringing an end — mostly — to the state’s three-year drought.
If you wanted to measure California’s change of water fortunes, the boat ramp at Lake Sonoma would be one place to do it.
The lake is the scene of an incredible four-month turnaround, for the very water system where the drought officially started.
“As you recall, three years ago, the governor literally was up at Lake Mendocino,” recalled Grant Davis with Sonoma Water. “Declaring the start of the drought basically, basically April 2021.”
Five months ago, San Luis Reservoir — the massive lake along Highway 152 between Gilroy and Los Banos — was just 24% full, an arid landscape of cracked mud and lonely boat ramps painfully far away from the dwindling water’s edge.
Atmospheric rivers can wreak havoc on the West Coast. These “rivers in the sky” stream enormous amounts of moisture from the tropics to western North America — double the flow of the Amazon River, on average. This moisture can produce downpours that cause widespread flood damage. From 1978 to 2017, this damage amounted to $1.1 billion per year according to a 2022 study. But atmospheric rivers are also crucial for life in California.
Despite recent rain storms across the state, California’s historic drought shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
While many environmentalists oppose the construction and expansion of dams, the Biden Administration believes in the value of above-ground water storage.
The Department of Interior on Monday announced $210 million in funding for water storage and conveyance projects in the western United States.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
