US NEWS
Why are reservoirs and dams in California releasing water during a drought?
Some people are confused as to why Californian resevoirs are letting water out and the answer is relating to expected rainfall.
California has been under drought conditions for nearly all of the last two years and 2023 looks set to be no exception.
The US Drought Monitor was created in 2000, in time to witness and record the longest period of drought in California in history, which lasted 376 weeks from 27 December, 2011, to 5 March, 2019. However, experts warn that period never really came to an end and California could be in the grip of a megadrought that could last for decades.
Against the backdrop of this, reservoirs in the state have been jettisoning water. The first rainfall of the year had started to raise levels though the water is being dumped. Why?
More expected rainfall could put lakes under pressure
The California Department of Water Resources has strict rules on how high water can get in lakes and reservoirs at different points of the year. With spring approaching, expected to bring harder rainfall, the resevoirs need to be prepared to take this on.
If the reservoirs get too full now there will not be the capacity to store the expected rain when necessary.
“The operator has to draw it down to a certain level in the winter time and then hold it in that level until the spring snowmelt season starts,” says Jeanine Jones of the California Department of Water Resources. “The reservoirs also have a storage deficit because of the drought conditions we’ve had so we have a ways to go to fill up.”
In the immediate future a storm is expected to give a lot of rainfall as well as melt low-height snow.