The mountain snowpack that supplies a significant amount of California's water got an incredible boost from recent powerful storms and is outpacing the state's wettest season on record, state water officials said Wednesday.
Most of California remains in moderate to severe drought, though that's better than several months ago when a huge swath of the state was in extreme or exceptional drought, according to the The amount of water in the snowpack, technically described as snow water equivalent, currently outpaces California's record 1982-83 season, according to the department. But the weather has turned drier, with only modest systems passing through.
DWR Director Karla Nemeth pointed out that February"is a traditional wet month that is actually starting off pretty dry" and the forecast is for dryness to continue.Nemeth also suggested that the April 1 date is no longer reliable because climate change is changing the timing of the peak snowpack. She also cited recent years in which runoff has dropped off dramatically and storm conditions have shut down and been followed by excessive dry periods.
"I don't want to be the downer here," Nemeth said."But I do want to make sure that everyone understands that we need to exercise caution." The precipitation has filled some reservoirs but others remain below historic average storage to date. Among the state's largest reservoirs, Lake Oroville was at 65% of capacity and 112% of average as of midnight Tuesday. But Shasta Lake was lagging at 56% of capacity, 87% of its historic average to date.
The storms also caused damaging flooding and landslides. There were at least 20 storm-related deaths, and a boy remains missing since being
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