Promising Start

I-80 near Truckee is currently closed (Chron photo)

Snowfall over Christmas weekend broke a 51-year-old December record:

On Monday, the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, located northwest of Lake Tahoe at Donner Pass, recorded 38.9 inches of snowfall over the previous 24 hours — bringing the monthly total to 193.7 inches so far for December. The previous December record was in 1970, with 179 inches of snow.

All that snow isn't water until spring, so reservoirs haven't yet reached average levels:

As a rainy December comes to close, nearly all Northern California reservoirs were still drier than historic averages for this time of year, according to data from the California Department of Water Resources.

But the precipitation still gave several reservoirs a boost from the beginning of the month.

Of seven major reservoirs in Northern California, three currently have more water than they did a year ago: Lake Mendocino, up 7%; Lake Oroville, up 2%; and Hetch Hetchy, up 15%.

If we have just normal precipitation from January to March, there won't be a drought emergency next summer. It's a promising start to 2022.