Hydrologic Conditions: Elsewhere in the Southwest, November 2015

Oroville chart 11-2015_FINALLake Oroville

Lake Oroville, the primary storage reservoir for the California State Water Project, continues to drop and is now at 28% of its total capacity or 47% of the historical average for the date. Storage levels are above where they were at the same time last year, but are still below the historical low from the driest year on record (1976-1977). (See chart)

Forecasters are predicting that El Niño is almost certain this winter, assigning high probabilities to the likelihood of wet conditions in Southern California, and expecting that wet conditions are more likely than dry conditions in Northern California. But snowpack levels and the impact of El Niño conditions on storage levels—the primary factors affecting DWR’s SWP allocation—remain in question.

 

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