Now nearby Lake Shasta is ready to spill over the dam. Northern CA is expecting rain as early as Wednesday so they are in deep (excuse the pun) trouble.
Central coast is expecting off and on rain Thursday through next Tuesday so can imagine what will be happening north of us.
The two lakes, especially Oroville, are part of the CA Water Project that send water to the San Joaquin Valley, one of the largest food producers for the nation.
The water is then pumped and sent by aqueduct to southern CA, primarily Los Angeles county and Orange county, to support the massive populations down there.
The central coast is bypassed and is still in severe draught conditions with Lake Cachuma, Santa Barbara's drinking water supply at 9% full and Lake Lopez, The Five Cities drinking supply at about 30% or less.
Yet over the nearby Cuesta Grade, Lake Santa Margarita is overflowing and Lake Naciemento is ready to. This shows how the terrain plus the northern CA weather patterns do little for the Central coast which is still in a severe draught. Still no water to fish in!
Here's a map showing the CA water project, perhaps the greatest waterway in the nation, with it's pumps and aqueducts sending water to farmlands and southern CA. It's very interesting that water is pumped uphill to Bakersfield and uphill again over the Grapevine into the LA area.
http://water.ca.gov/swp/docs/SWPmap.pdf
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