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By Anna Skinner
Associate News Editor
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California Department of Water Resources (DWR) issued an update last week about Lake Oroville's water levels after the state's second-largest reservoir dropped 6 feet this month.
Lake Oroville's water levels began rising last December and reached full capacity in May following a slew of atmospheric rivers that brought a deluge of rain and snow to the Golden State during the winter. Last year, a similarly wet winter season helped remedy much of the state's drought, although the storms also caused devastating floods and landslides.
Atmospheric rivers are a "long, narrow region in the atmosphere—like rivers in the sky—that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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However, California is now in its dry season, and last Friday the DWR issued a Lake Oroville update alerting the public that snowmelt has ceased, meaning the lake likely won't rise anymore this summer.
"With warm temperatures here to stay in Northern California, runoff into Lake Oroville from snowmelt has significantly dwindled with outflows currently exceeding inflows," the update said. "The Department of Water Resources continues to meet water delivery and environmental requirements while optimizing water storage to allow for carryover storage into next year."
Newsweek reached out to the DWR by email for further comment.
The update also said that releases through the Oroville dam stopped in May. At times, winter storms brought so much rain that officials had to release billions of gallons of water from the lake's dam to mitigate flood risk. Now, water is routed through the Hyatt Power Plant for power generation.
As of Monday, Lake Oroville's water level measured 893 feet, or 97 percent full. This time last year, the lake was at 899 feet. However, this time in 2022 the lake was at only 760 feet. Although not quite at capacity, Lake Oroville is still 127 percent above its historical average for this time of year. Many of California's other large reservoirs also are above average, including Lake Shasta, New Bullards Bar Reservoir and Folsom Lake.
People may still see some water on the main spillway at the Oroville Dam, the DWR said, as the seals on the eight radial gates are not watertight.
"The gate seals do not play a role in the structural integrity of the gates, which continue to operate as intended," the DWR said. "Visitors to Oroville Dam may also notice minor amounts of water flowing from drains built into the emergency spillway. This is normal and expected given the emergency spillway design. The dam and emergency spillway continue to operate as intended."
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