Wonder how that's going to play out for the dams' spillways. Also, it seems essential that California should have much greater freshwater storage capacity given that weather is more variable and climate is changing... otherwise doing the same thing and expecting a different result is either insanity or stupidity.
It is of course good they have enough water right now, but I worry that this will only allow politicians to further delay any water management programs until another devastating drought comes along. The ground aquifers are still being drained at an accelerated pace which means surface water utilization will only rise, even if the overall water usage drops, which I don't see happening right now.
"California water officials say the amount of snow blanketing the Sierra Nevada is even bigger than the 2017 snowpack that pulled the state out of a five-year drought."
Huh. Nice to hear.
Meanwhile, Washington is at 29%[1] of the thirty year average. That's nearly an order of magnitude different from California's, which is just a quick drive away. Things are getting weird.
A quick drive? Cental Washington is 750 miles from Sierra Nevada. And you're comparing apples to oranges. Why would you expect uniform weather up the entire West coast? That would be, in fact, weird.
It's similar out west in Utah. People are still skiing, snowboard and snowmobiling as of this past weekend with storms commonly dropping inches of snow in the mountains.