California’s two largest reservoirs are nearly full after reaching dangerously low water levels late last year.
Lake Shasta was 96% full and Lake Oroville was 100% full, but fell to about 25% to 30% of capacity until the state’s historically wet winters cleared.
Statewide reservoir capacity has reached 85% of total capacity, well above the 30-year average of 73% in June. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada are still more than three times their normal levels in mid-June and are expected to accumulate more as the snow melts.
of Before and after images from NASA below Shows Lake Shasta on November 18, 2022. At that time, the lake was only 31% full, but on May 29, 2023, the lake was 98% full.
California’s largest reservoir hasn’t been filled for more than four years. California Department of Water Resources data. The “bathtub ring”, which shows how much the water level has dropped around the lake, was clearly visible in November, but disappeared by May.
Lake Auroville in Butte County has also undergone a remarkable transformation.
Lake level has risen since December 1 rose over 240 feet This is thanks to over 2.5 million acre-feet of additional water brought in by a series of powerful winter storms and the melting of historically deep snowpacks. This corresponds to 127% of the reservoir’s historical average for that date. status data show.
The image below shows the lake near the Enterprise Bridge on December 21st. The water level at this time was 29% of capacity. Far below the span of the bridge, a narrow strip of water winds through the bottom of the canyon.
Lake Oroville, under the Enterprise Bridge, was nearly gone on December 21, 2022.
(Ken James/California Department of Water Resources)
In less than six months, the landscape has changed noticeably. In the image below, taken on June 12th, the water level has risen dramatically in the same portion of Lake Oroville, filling it almost to the top of the piles that support the bridge.
A similar view of Lake Oroville on June 12, 2023 showed a dramatic change. The reservoir is currently 100% full.
(Ken James/California Department of Water Resources)
In the second photo, the reservoir is now at 100% capacity, submerging the barren hillside previously exposed by low water levels.
Satellite data research NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory They found that winter caused the largest pure water build-up in California lakes in the 22 years the metric was tracked.
From October 2022 to March 2023, water levels in the Central Valley’s “lakes, rivers, soil, snowpacks, and subterranean aquifers” increased by 20 inches, or about twice the average increase over the past 22 years. .
But experts say groundwater levels have remained low and may continue to fall in the future.
“One winter of rain and snow is not enough to make up for years of extreme drought and massive groundwater use,” said JPL scientist Felix Landerer.
Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.
