California Weather Tracker

California Weather Tracker

This page is updated once a day with the latest data available.

ABC looked at data available for several metrics to bring you real-time water and weather information. Scroll down to see reservoir levels, precipitation totals, snowpack information and drought conditions.

The California Department of Water Resources tracks daily reservoir storage for 48 areas across the state. Capacity and storage volume are measured in acre-feet, which is slightly less than 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover an acre of land one foot deep. According to the department, "an acre-foot of water is considered enough water to meet the needs of two families of four for one year."

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has hundreds of weather stations across the country that monitor climate conditions, including precipitation, through regional climate centers. California is part of the Western Regional Climate Center, which encompasses nine states in total.

35 of the stations in California are listed below with precipitation data from 2018 through the current month. All of the selected areas are ThreadEx stations, which have the most uniform historical measurments for each area.

Monthly Precipitation Trends



The United States Department of Agriculture, through the Natural Resources Conservation Service and National Water and Climate Center, tracks snowpack totals for California and other states. There are 12 basins included in the data and 122 basin sites.

Snowpack measurements are "the current snow water equivalent" at each site. The median is based on 30 years of daily data for most basin sites. For areas where the median is based on fewer years of data, it's noted at the bottom of the table. Some measurements are listed as N/A, meaning the data is not available. Other measurments are listed as -M, meaning there is missing data, or *, meaning the analysis may not provide a valid measure of conditions and is therefore removed from the table.

Snowpack Totals



The U.S. Drought Monitor tracks drought conditions across California and other states. The data is jointly produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The colors on the map show drought intensity, ranging from "abnormally dry" in yellow to "exceptional drought" in dark red. According to the data, the longest amount of time California was in a drought lasted 376 weeks -- from December 27, 2011 to March 5th, 2019.

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This page was created by Lindsey Feingold and Grace Manthey.