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I don't know why people are so worried about the lack of snow at this point. There is plenty of room in the reservoirs for rain at this point. Maybe later in
by pwarner 12y ago
I don't know why people are so worried about the lack of snow at this point. There is plenty of room in the reservoirs for rain at this point. Maybe later in the season the snow will become important, but at this point I think CA can store lots of liquid water
Some reservoirs can't be filled this early as the need to leave space for flood control, but the big ones have so much extra room I imagine they can store every drop.
- mc32 12y agoIt's because most of the rainwater will end up back in the sea via sewers, rivers, etc. Snow becomes snowmelt --which happens slowly so it does not become runoff but filters into aquifers, reservoirs, etc.
- thaumaturgy 12y agoI don't think it works that way. A few of the large California reservoirs, like the San Luis Reservoir and Lake Berryessa, get their water from storm runoff in mountains that don't typically accumulate much snow, but a large amount of the water storage in California comes from Sierra or Trinity snowpack. Unfortunately, a lot of California storm drainage is designed to move the water to the ocean as quickly as possible, to prevent flooding. I think most of the rainfall in the Bay Area that doesn't soak into the ground will find its way to the delta or to the Bay rather than a reservoir. Think of it this way: cumulative snowpack is a massive year-round reservoir in California. See e.g. http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article3505269.html http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article3505269....
- sp332 12y agoHere are the reservoir levels. http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.action http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.act...