Lake Shasta is 79-percent full, the first time California’s largest reservoir has exceeded its average level for mid-March in nearly three years, “after a wet weekend in northern California,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir, was 70-percent full and the Department of Water Resources said it could exceed its historical average before sunset on Monday. The reservoirs have a combined capacity of 8 million acre-feet.
“If the soggy month continues, both reservoirs could actually fill to the brim by April, officials say. Neither reservoir has been full since about the beginning of the drought,” said the Times. The National Weather Service reported nearly a foot of rain in El Dorado County and nine inches of rain in Shasta County over the weekend. California is in its fourth year of drought.