Lake Oroville levels are visibly up, what does it mean for the drought?
OROVILLE -- Brown water has been replaced with blues and greens and the once-exposed lakebeds of Lake Oroville are where they should be: underwater. Houseboats are back on the lake and the sentiment from boaters: "Fingers crossed" it stays like this.
Lake Oroville levels are up in the second week of February by nearly 30% of where they were in December before a string of atmospheric rivers dumped trillions of gallons of water statewide, which was enough to bring Lake Oroville to nearly 70% capacity.
A little over a year ago, it wasn't even at 30 percent full.
"I love it because you don't have to march down a cliff when the water's super low. Now you can park close," said boater Kent Tolzmann.
One expert told CBS13 that forecasting shows there could be 1.5 million acre-feet of water in fun off between April and July, but it's too soon to get exact numbers.
"Are we going to fill the reservoir? I doubt it unless we have a really wet spring," said Alan Haynes, NOAA Hydrologist in Charge.
Even with the first 70-degree day in Sacramento this weekend, which came, on average, a week early, "this year hasn't been as warm as some of the recent years," said Jeanine Jones, an interstate resources manager with the Department of Water Resources.
This year, experts are more optimistic, but forecasting capabilities only go out about two weeks accurately, so we aren't out of the woods just yet.