"We're in great shape, said Jeffrey Mount, a professor emeritus at UC Davis and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California's water center. Together, both Shasta and Oroville have captured 1.6 million acre feet of water in the past three weeks the equivalent of four reservoirs the size of Hetch Hetchy, San Francisco's largest, and enough water for the yearly use of 9 million people."
"A similar shift has happened in the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of one-third of California's water supply. On Dec. 16 it was 18% of normal and ski resorts were struggling to open. On Monday it was 90% of normal following another weekend of heavy snow storms that dumped several feet of fresh powder across the Lake Tahoe region. Typically, California receives most of its rain from December to March."
Atmospheric river storms over the past three weeks have delivered hundreds of billions of gallons into California reservoirs and boosted the Sierra snowpack. Since Dec. 16 Shasta Reservoir rose 36 feet to 77% capacity, 129% of its historical average, while Oroville rose 69 feet to 73% capacity, 134% of its historical average. Shasta and Oroville captured 1.6 million acre-feet, equivalent to four Hetch Hetchy-sized reservoirs and enough annual water for nine million people. Sierra snowpack increased from 18% to 90% of normal, and the wet season runs December through March, so conditions could still change.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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