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OtakuMage t1_j46tv20 wrote

This is less uplifting than people think because none of this rain went into the Sierras or Rockies. This means still empty lake reservoirs and not enough snow pack.

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filipehenrique t1_j477cdw wrote

Have you seen the news? Snowpack in parts of the Sierra’s are already ahead of their April averages.

They are getting snowpack and the reservoirs are being filled.

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Darryl_Lict t1_j471yr6 wrote

Our local reservoir went from about 8% capacity to overflow predicted this weekend during this season. It's amazing how much rain we got. I don't remember it being like this since I think it was 1996 when we got like three 100 year storms in one year.

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RoboLucifer t1_j4764iz wrote

I am curious if the problem lies in the fact that although the res is filled again, this is temporary, and there is not necessarily an ongoing source of replenishment. Unless the snowpack is good? I haven't been paying attention.

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churrmander t1_j47m2i2 wrote

Snowpack in the mountains -- if my enviro science class knowledge serves me well -- is good because it means that reservoirs are replenished over the summer as snow in the lower altitudes of the mountains melts off and flows down river.

No snowpack means the reservoirs aren't continuously fed and thus any fullness will likely only last us this summer at best.

I'm sure I'm incorrect somewhere, so if any environerds wanna chime in, be my guest.

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imapilotaz t1_j47m649 wrote

You are 100% wrong. The Sierra are WAY ahead in snowpack than "average" and dramatically ahead of recent years.

Mountain lakes/resevoirs are always lowest in winter as all the moisture is sitting frozen in feet of snow above.

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Kraka2 t1_j47mgu7 wrote

Uh have you seen the snowpack in Mammoth?

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SuperSlimMilk t1_j47pe14 wrote

Rockies are receiving more than 8+ ft of snow on their summits and a good amount of the moisture from this atmospheric river event made it past the Rockies.

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timshel42 t1_j47s5rk wrote

didnt they get literal feet of snow from a few of these systems

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DanteJazz t1_j481wav wrote

Maybe not the Rockies, but the Sierra got rain and snow. The snow pack is 150-200+% of normal. The foothills have got a lot of rain. The reservoirs are starting to fill, but we will still need more rain Feb.-April to fill them.

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LoveThieves t1_j474zda wrote

read some studies that one rain storm in a month won't fix the drought, even a year of rain, takes decades of normal rain to go back to normal.

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