Reservoirs benefit from recent rainfall

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The latest storm padded an already healthy snowpack around the state.

Reservoirs provide residents with drinking water and they provide farmers with an irrigation supply.

Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River watershed is already two-thirds full.

The reservoir holds 520,000 acre feet and as you can see Millerton Lake has benefited from the recent rains as well as the snowstorms in the mountains.

"Incoming is very high for this time of year and this kind of storm was a fairly cold storm but there's quite a bit of rain that also fell so the water coming in is filling the reservoir very quickly," said Sarge Green with the California Water Institute.

Water and some snowmelt is already flowing into the three major reservoirs in our area.

San Luis Reservoir in Los Banos is at 86% capacity right now.

Friant Dam is 66% full while Pine Flat is at 40% of capacity.

Sarge Green of the California Water Institute at Fresno State says at this point the snowpack is setting up a good water year all over the state.

"Well we've now moved above average whether it's in the north in the Shasta watershed which supplies the west side or whether it's Friant Dam close by here. They're all above normal in the Sierra watershed," Green said.

Green likes to say the gate is still open, meaning the signs still point to more storms on the horizon.

When they arrive, cold storms are better than warm ones because the warmth can lead to an early snowmelt.