The Sierra snowpack is 33 times bigger this year than last year’s snowpack. This winter featured a long succession of storms crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains, leading to the large increase in snowpack. The added snowpack and heavier than usual rains in the Central Valley have equated to full water allocations for many water districts. The Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project water allocations this May were 75% for the West-side contractors south of the delta, 100% for Friant division contractors and 100% for other districts served by the federal water project. This is a stark contrast to the drought years of 2014-2015 in which these contractors received 0% of their water allocations from the Bureau.
