Engaging Data has a nice data display for this. It more clearly shows the capacities of the individual reservoirs [1]. They also have displays for the current snowpack [2] and rainfall [3]. After a very slow start, this year's precipitation is finally up to the median.<p>If you want to understand why California has so much trouble with water, pay special attention to the rainfall totals web page. It shows how many years got N inches of rainfall. Best year was more than 200% of median rainfall, and worst was 40% of median. And it is historically common to have many sub-median years in a row.<p>[1] <a href="https://engaging-data.com/ca-reservoir-dashboard/" rel="nofollow">https://engaging-data.com/ca-reservoir-dashboard/</a><p>[2] <a href="https://engaging-data.com/california-snowpack-levels/" rel="nofollow">https://engaging-data.com/california-snowpack-levels/</a><p>[3] <a href="https://engaging-data.com/california-precipitation-levels/" rel="nofollow">https://engaging-data.com/california-precipitation-levels/</a>
The California Water Project was intended to have enough capacity for three years of drought. It was when we started having 4-6 years of low rain that it got bad.<p>I don't know if they still have it, but at one time the California Department of Water Resources' control center had a sign "California Drought Control Center" on one side, and "California Flood Control Center" on the other. The sign was turned over every few years as appropriate.
The state has been releasing water in order to leave room for this winter’s snowfall.<p>We still have a lot of risk: the snowpack is part of our reservoir system, but warm summers have been melting the snow faster than usual. So it’s good the state wants to build additional reservoir capacity.
The main problem with California water is that the state hasn't built new reservoirs for the last several decades, while the population has doubled.<p>This is part of the general trend where California decided building things was bad, invented CEQA, and now here we are.
I find this chart more readable: <a href="https://engaging-data.com/pages/scripts/reservoirs/resmekko.html" rel="nofollow">https://engaging-data.com/pages/scripts/reservoirs/resmekko....</a>
That's the joy of increased weather volatility.<p>You might start to think that the wild good years will float you through the wild bad years, but you're more likely to be wrong.
We should be building more reservoirs. Back to back wet winters are not the norm. Need a lot of buffer for the next time it doesn't rain as much for 5+ years.
Is it cold enough that some of this water can be preserved in the mountains using ice stupas?<p><a href="https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/07/07/ice-stupas-have-become-a-popular-water-management-tool-in-the-himalayas-but-can-they-work-in-chile/" rel="nofollow">https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/07/07/ice-stupas-have...</a>
Which every sane scientist and individual predicted a few years ago. But were shouted down by climate change zealots as blasphemy. I remember climate change lunatics used to post pictures of 'bare' mt rainier. Now, not so much...