CALIFORNIA AND NORTH BAY WATER: A WET WINTER IN 12 GRAPHICS

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California is getting a three day break from storms, with the next disturbance set to arrive this weekend.

This is a good time to add up the cummulative impact of a near historic rainy season, across California and the North Bay.

CALIFORNIA RAINFALL

Much of California has received 200% of normal rainfall since the water year began in October. (Images 1, 2) The main exception is the northern third of the state which as been on the fringes of most of the large atmospheric river storms.

NORTH BAY RAINFALL

The North Bay has generally received more than 100% of its normal water year rainfall. However, a few of the larger atmospheric river storms have been aimed slightly south over Central California, reducing their impact in the North Bay. Here is our water year to date rainfall, and percent of an average year. (Images 3,4)

RESERVOIRS

Lake Sonoma is approaching 300K acre feet of storage, well above its water supply pool of 245K acre feet. (Image 5)

Almost all of the major state reservoirs have staged dramatic comebacks this winter, with lots of melting snowpack left to fill them this spring. (Images 6,7) Of special significance are Lakes Shasta and Oroville, the two largest in the state. Lake Sonoma is at 124% of its historic average level for mid-March.

SIERRA SNOWPACK

The Sierra snowpack holds an enormous amount of water, due to a series of cold storms in February followed by warmer AR storms that saturated an already huge amount of snow. (Image 8)

The most important number for the state’s water supply is snow water equivalent, which stands at more than double the average across the Sierra’s three water supply zones. (Images 9,10)

DROUGHT MONITOR

Taken as a whole, California has made a dramatic recovery from severe drought conditions of just one year ago. This is largely due to 5 consecutive above normal rain and snowfall months this winter, a rare occurrance. These two maps show the improvement from March 8th of 2022 in the first image, to March 14th of 2023 in the second. (Images 11,12)