{"id":495709,"date":"2026-01-06T04:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/495709\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T04:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:51:14","slug":"californias-largest-reservoir-rises-36-feet-as-rains-boost-water-supply-statewide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/495709\/","title":{"rendered":"California’s largest reservoir rises 36 feet as rains boost water supply statewide"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it rains, it pours. And that\u2019s good news for California\u2019s water supply.<\/p>\n

After a relatively slow start to the winter<\/a> rainy season, a series of atmospheric river storms<\/a> has sent hundreds of billions of gallons of water pouring into reservoirs across California over the past three weeks, easing the concerns of water managers and significantly reducing the likelihood of shortages next summer.<\/p>\n

Since Dec. 16, the state\u2019s largest reservoir \u2014 Shasta, a massive 35-mile-long lake near Redding \u2014 has risen by 36 feet. On Monday, it was 77% full, at 129% of its historical average for this time of year and still rising.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the water level at Oroville, the state\u2019s second-largest reservoir, has jumped 69 feet over the same three weeks. The reservoir, formed by Oroville Dam in Butte County, was 73% full and at 134% of its historical average as of Monday, having added nearly as much water in the past 24 hours as Crystal Springs Reservoir in San Mateo County holds when full.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in great shape,\u201d said Jeffrey Mount, a professor emeritus at UC Davis and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California\u2019s water center.<\/p>\n

Together, Shasta and Oroville have captured 1.6 million acre feet of water in the past three weeks \u2014 the equivalent of four reservoirs the size of Hetch Hetchy, San Francisco\u2019s largest, and enough water for 9 million people for a year.<\/p>\n

A similar shift has happened in the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of one-third of California\u2019s water supply. On Dec. 16, it was 18% of normal and ski resorts were struggling to open. On Monday, it was 90% of normal following another weekend of heavy snowstorms that dumped several feet of fresh powder across the Lake Tahoe region.<\/p>\n

Typically, California receives most of its rain from December to March.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not even halfway through the wet season,\u201d Mount said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how it is going to turn out. We have had other years where we got early rains and then the taps were shut off. But what we do know is that we\u2019ve seen a huge jump in the past few weeks. That reduces the likelihood of shortages this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The past three winters have been at or above average<\/a> across Northern California, where most of the big reservoirs are located. That has left more water in the reservoirs as they start the winter season.<\/p>\n

As a result,\u00a0 nearly every major reservoir in California on Monday was above its historic average capacity for this time of year.<\/p>\n

San Luis Reservoir, the vast inland sea between Gilroy and Los Banos, was 70% full. Los Vaqueros, the biggest reservoir in Contra Costa County, was 90% full.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Luis Reservoir in Merced County, Calif., on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. The reservoir is about 70 percent full. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Southern California, Cachuma Reservoir, the largest in Santa Barbara County, was 100% full and spilling on Monday. Farther south, Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County, a linchpin of the water supply for 20 million people in the Los Angeles region, was 94% full.<\/p>\n

Smaller communities saw similar trends. All seven reservoirs operated by the Marin Municipal Water District were 99% full<\/a>. And Loch Lomond, the main reservoir for 100,000 people in the Santa Cruz area, hit 100% full on Sunday, and began sending water down the spillway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten a foot of rain since Christmas Eve in the Santa Cruz Mountains,\u201d said Chris Coburn, deputy director of the Santa Cruz City Water Department. \u201cAs a water manager, it makes me happy. It gives us comfort. For at least the next year, we know we\u2019re good on storage and will be able to meet customer demand. We\u2019re always happy to see the rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dam operators at some reservoirs, including Shasta, Oroville and Folsom near Sacramento, have increased releases in recent days to preserve space so they can catch more water in a controlled way if there are other big storms in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they fill the reservoir too soon, the next storm could cause them to have to spill,\u201d Mount said, \u201cwhich is what they don\u2019t want to do. The goal is to control the flow to reduce the risk of flooding downstream on the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

The East Bay Municipal Utility District\u2019s seven reservoirs, which serve 1.4 million people in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, were 82% full<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"SubmergedSubmerged stairs at Lake Chabot Regional Park on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Castro Valley, Calif. The reservoir is currently at 96% capacity. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all good news,\u201d said Andrea Pook, an East Bay MUD spokeswoman. \u201cWe still have a number of months to go. We\u2019ll know more in April. But these wet months are crucial now, so we can refill our reservoirs. We\u2019re hoping for continued storms the rest of the winter and early spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AShe had advice for homeowners.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake sure your irrigation is not on,\u201d Pook said.<\/p>\n

Nine reservoirs operated by the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which serves 2 million people in the South Bay, were 50% full on Monday, due in part to the fact that the South Bay received less rain than other areas in recent weeks, and because several of the reservoirs cannot be filled to the top under state rules without earthquake retrofitting. The largest in the district, Anderson Reservoir, near Morgan Hill, is virtually empty as it undergoes construction to rebuild its dam<\/a> to seismic standards.<\/p>\n

So far, Northern California has escaped serious flooding. That luck should continue, as the forecast calls for 10 days of dry weather starting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is that we have seen just about every spot in the whole state going above normal for precipitation for this time of year,\u201d said Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services<\/a> in Half Moon Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut starting Tuesday, we\u2019re going to dry off. This is a year of big contrasts \u2014 multiple weeks of dry, then multiple weeks of wet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RentalRental boats in the marina at Lake Chabot Regional Park on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Castro Valley, Calif. The reservoir is currently at 96% capacity. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0
\n\"SanSan Luis Reservoir in Merced County, Calif., on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. The reservoir is about 70 percent full. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it rains, it pours. And that\u2019s good news for California\u2019s water supply. After a relatively slow start…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":495710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[223030,746,223029,182772,159,223031,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-495709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-california-water","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-reservoir-levels","11":"tag-reservoirs","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-sierra-nevada-snowpack","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115846360919338302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}