Storms Lift Reservoirs, But 2014 Still Remains Worst Drought In History
FOLSOM (CBS SF) -- The storms drenched California with over a foot of rain in some North Bay areas--21 inches on Mount Tamalpais--and enough of that runoff made it to area reservoirs that the graphs showing water levels finally transitioned from down to up. The problem is, they're so far down that weeks of storms still wouldn't end the drought.
Lake Shasta, supplying water to the Sacramento River and into the Delta where it's tapped by the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and the entire Central Valley is up about a foot since hitting rock bottom last Tuesday. The large reservoir added 15,065 acre feet of water.
WATER MEASUREMENT: An acre foot (AF) is enough water to fill an acre of land with a foot of water, or about enough to supply a family of four for a year.
San Luis Reservoir, which captures stream runoff, and also holds water pumped from the Delta, was relatively flat.
Folsom Lake, east of Sacramento, which feeds the American River into the same network of water supply lines at the Delta did much better.
After reaching rock bottom on Thursday, Folsom added nearly 14 feet of water to its elevation by Sunday night, adding up to an additional 47,678 acre feet of water.
TRACK RESERVOIRS:
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/reservoir_map.html
