California’s Water Levels as They Look Before and After Recent Rainfall
Following two weeks of unusually high rainfall around the state, the water levels in California’s major reservoirs have recently increased significantly.
2 min readJan 11, 2023
The state’s most significant reservoirs have water levels that are much below their historical norm as a result of months of severe drought in the area.
According to Roger Bales, a water and climate engineer at the University of California, Merced, reservoirs — typically dams at the mountain front — “Reservoirs, mainly dams at the mountain front, provide seasonal storage for water supply, in addition to storage to reduce downstream flooding,” [1]
“They store winter and spring rainfall and snowmelt [in the wet season], releasing that stored water during the summer growing season for irrigation and for municipal use [in the dry season].” [1]
