The state's
largest reservoir is nearly filled to capacity:
Shasta Lake, about 10 miles north from the city of Redding, is at a surface level of 1,061.70 feet as of Wednesday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which is just shy of its full capacity of 1,067 feet. That puts the lake at 96% of its total capacity, or 114% of its historical capacity for this time of year, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
Shasta Lake can hold about 1.5 trillion gallons of water, which can “cover the entire state of California in half an inch of water,” Colin McCarthy, an atmospheric science student at UC Davis who runs US Stormwatch, wrote in a post on X.
The reservoir began seeing a major jump in water levels after several atmospheric river-fueled storms brought heavy downpours during the holiday season. And last year, the reservoir also rose to nearly full capacity around the same period.
The capacity levels mark a notable comeback after a long-lasting, extreme drought period depleted the reservoir. Photos from summer 2021, published by Record Searchlight, a local media outlet in Redding, show the bone-dry lake with cracks and hardened mud.
Shasta Lake isn’t the only reservoir seeing exceptional water levels. Lake Oroville, the state’s second-largest reservoir, is currently at a surface level of around 891 feet as of Friday afternoon, according to the California Department of Water Resources, which puts the reservoir at 96% of its total capacity and 120% of its historical capacity for this time of year.
After three wet winters in a row California is lucky that its
failure to build more water storage won't restrict residents' water usage...this year.
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