Northern California Water Levels are Rising at an Astounding Rate

Lake Oroville. Photo by ray_explores

A historic storm slammed Northern California this week and boy did we need it. With dreadfully low water levels and zero snowpack, the impacts of the drought were beginning to look dire. Now, after a weekend of torrential rain, waterways are rising at an astounding rate.

The historic rain created a lot of issues throughout the region, including flooding, landslides and evacuations in burn scars. But there are plenty of positives to take away from the atmospheric river, most notably the water levels that have suffered from the drought. While the levels are still well below their historical average, the storms have quickly began filling up our waterways once again.

With the flooding settling and water moving freely through NorCal rivers and reservoirs, the significance of the storm is now being seen in water levels. Here’s a rundown of the change in water levels throughout NorCal from the past week:

Shasta Lake – Rose 3 feet from October 20 – October 26

Lake Oroville – Rose 27 feet from October 18 – October 26

Folsom Lake – Rose 27 feet from October 25 – October 26

Trinity Lake – Rose 3 feet from October 20 – October 26

Lake Tahoe – Rose a foot between October 24 – October 26

Sacramento River – 700 CFS to nearly 4,000 CFS from October 24 – 25

Truckee River – 900 CFS to nearly 6,000 CFS from October 24 – October 25

To put things in perspective, water levels are still well below their historical average and far from reaching their full capacity:

Will we continue to get precipitation to refill our waterways? We sure hope so!

Active NorCal

Telling the Stories of Northern California

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button