Outflows continue from Lake Oroville

OROVILLE — Since the beginning of December, Lake Oroville’s elevation has shot up by around 200 feet thanks to a constant stream of winter storms.

The lake reached a level that has prompted the California Department of Water Resources to let water out over the course of the past month in what the department claims is an effort to control flooding downstream.

Its new spillway gate has been utilized to do this with outflows up to 35,000 cfs. Now, as the storms settle down, only 7,500 cfs is being released from the lake, with 1,000 cfs routed into the low flow area of the Feather River through the city of Oroville and the remainder being sent through the Termalito Afterbay River Outlet roughly five miles down stream, according to an announcement by DWR.

Lake Oroville sits at 83% of its total capacity as of Friday, which is 860 feet. This translates into 2.84 million acre-feet of water. Thanks to rainfall, the lake is at 115% of its historical average for this time of year.

On April 3, DWR conducted its fourth snow survey of 2023 at Philips Station in the Sierra Nevada. DWR announced that it recorded 126.5 inches of snow with a snow water equivalent of 54 inches or 221% of the average for the location. The state as a whole, based on surveys at 130 different sensors, California is at 237% of its average to date with a snow water equivalent of 61.1 inches.

DWR Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Unit Manager Sean de Guzman weighed in on the current snowpack in California.

“This year’s result will go down as one of the largest snowpack years on record in California,” de Guzman said. “While 1952’s snow course measurements showed a similar result, there were fewer snow courses at that time, making it difficult to compare to today’s results. Because additional snow courses were added over the years, it is difficult to compare results accurately across the decades with precision, but this year’s snowpack is definitely one of the biggest the state has seen since the 1950s.”