Barely Hanging On

Folsom Lake is at 54% of its 976K acre-ft capacity

The December rains gave way to a dry January, suspending hopes of an end to the drought. The somewhat good news is that reservoir levels are higher.

thanks to a little snowmelt, water levels were up for all reservoirs from December to January. Lake Mendocino, which has a capacity of 122,400 acre feet, saw the biggest boost from 17% of storage capacity in December to 35% in January. One acre foot is the equivalent of one acre of land covered in one foot of water. Trinity Lake, with a capacity of 2,447,650 acre feet, had the smallest increase from 29% in December to 30% in January...

[CA Dept. of Water Resources hydrology section manager David] Rizzardo said there was a “decent amount of flow into the reservoirs into January, even though weather-wise it was bone dry,” a result of lower elevation snow at 4,000 to 6,000 feet making it’s [sic] way into the reservoirs.

The seasonal storms were sufficiently high to raise California out of the worst drought conditions: [bold added]

For the first time in more than a year, all of California is out of the worst drought category as the state’s overall outlook shows major improvement since the start of the water year.

As of Tuesday, when the U.S. Drought Monitor released its latest map, 0% of the Golden State was experiencing “exceptional” drought — something that hasn’t happened since Dec. 8, 2020.

It appears that we'll make it through the summer but will again have to pray for rain next winter.

Beset by drought, COVID-19, inflation, and people with money and/or prospects moving away, California is barely hanging on.