Some of the lakes could have been filled to capacity from drought levels. But then they are releasing the water back down to almost drought levels because of additional rain and the anticipated capacity from the snow pack.

So basically, it seems we're going to fill some lakes / reservoirs from drought levels twice this year. Gee, sure might be nice to store some of that somewhere for when droughts happen again.

You can only store so much until you run out of space....like right now. The key is having that snow pack stay frozen and last into late-Summer.

There is one large-sized reservoir due to come on-line in the next 10-years, barring any more road blocks by the enviros. Ground breaking for Sites Reservoir Project is projected to begin 2024, completion in 2030. It'll hold 1.8 million acre/ft, which would make it 6th largest in state and a bit bigger than Lake Berryessa.

OK, now we got semis on bridges getting blown on their sides...

I assume they are empty. How strong does wind need to be in order to blow one over?

The crosswind at the time of the accident was 57 mph. However, there's no official word yet on what exactly caused it.

Some good insight from Juan

Eleventh atmospheric river storm of the season drowns California

As I post this it’s been raining continuously for the past eleven hours.

“Another atmospheric river engulfed California on Tuesday, worsening pressures faced by residents still trying to recover from weeks of relentless storms.

The latest storm put nearly 27,000 people under evacuation orders due to flooding and landslide risks and caused 16 major rivers in the state to overflow.
……

Atmospheric rivers are named as such because they are caused by narrow, river-like formations of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere. They can dump huge amounts of rain, causing flooding and mudslides. …”

DailyMail article:
https://mol.im/a/11861367

There's quite a lot of devastation going on here. We had 97 mph winds in some places a couple days ago. Trees down, 300,000 without power, homes destroyed. We're in a lull now, but there may be another atmospheric river in less than a week.

In case you're wondering what the current drought situation is, it's not officially over, but the recent deluges have made a sharp impact on the drought. Some areas have experienced a "5-class improvement," meaning a jump of five categories — going from D4 (exceptional drought) to no drought.

We got hit pretty hard with wind. Felt like the old tornado days in Texas. BIG tree came down a few houses down, smashing 2 cars. Was waiting for any number of these big redwoods to go, but they seemed to just shed big branches. But there's chaos all over. Knocked our landlord's piece of crap fence down. Trampolines, canopies, anything light and aerodynamic took flight.

It wasn't like the tornados which come and go pretty quick, it lasted most of the day.

Came through yesterday and last night. Went for a walk in it because I love lightning, and I was surprised find there were ankle-deep puddles. I don’t know how common that is, but it surprised me. There are still some today.

They need to be catching aand sequestering all that rain water. They'll need it come summer.

flashguy

Had the high-winds but, no lighting up in the North Bay, flooding seems to be in the usual areas but, nothing as severe as what Watsonville-area and Central Valley have been experiencing. Things have calmed down and the sun finally broke through today, everyone's drying out...for now.

Its pretty amazing how much snow is accumulated, Squaw Valley, ahem Palisades Tahoe has over 662" INCHES to date (52 feet) with more to come.

Dumb question: what is the drought chart indicating? Is it that the ground has seasonally expected moisture levels? That reservoirs are seasonally full? That aquifers and water sources are seasonally full? All of the above? Other?

Btw, I caught lightning on my outside camera. Also what may be a shooting star or something. Or maybe UFO explosion? .

These links explain what the chart means:

Drought intensity ratings

What the ratings mean

So, superficial water levels? Surface water levels like soil and lakes? Not necessarily aquifers and wells?

Well, I don't know how it all works in that much detail.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
OK, now we got semis on bridges getting blown on their sides...

I've ridden a smaller GS400 Suzuki over that bridge, wife on the back, on a normal day the wind is quite stiff, the rear of the bike was all over the place, we were glad to get off and into Sausalito. Couple of beers later the courage to go back over to the city had returned.....

Cry me a river California..

Rain? Did someone say rain?

We could use some rain as we're in the desert.