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Despite California drought, the Lake Shasta reservoir nearly floods thanks to El Niño.

Imagine you have a farm and the years have been kind. You look out at your bountiful harvest that God has blessed for generations and you smile with pride and joy.

Then the unthinkable happens; a horrible drought hits and suddenly the future of your farm, which has been in your family for four generations, is uncertain. With only God to cry out to, what would you do?

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Highlights

By Kenya Sinclair (CALIFORNIA NETWORK)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
3/28/2016 (7 years ago)

Published in Green

Keywords: Lake Shasta, California, drought, El Niño, flood, FBR

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Despite several reports indicating the California drought will only grow worse, farmers can praise God for El Nińo's effects on the state's largest reservoir.

According to Shane Hunt, a spokesman from the Federal Bureau of Reclamation (FBR), the ongoing El Nińo storms washing across Northern California have caused Lake Shasta to overfill, forcing the FBR to release 5,000 to 20,000 cubic feet per second of water on March 18, which is the first time since 2011 that they have been forced to release water into the Sacramento River at such a rapid rate.

University of California geologist Jeff Mount, Ph.D. stated, "The future of California is joined at the hip with the Sacramento River."

As described by the Sacramento River Watershed Program, the Sacramento River Basin "provides drinking water for residents of northern and southern California, supplies farmers with the lifeblood of California's agricultural industry, and is a vital organ for hundreds of wildlife species..."

According to NWS Medford, after El Nińo swept through Northern California, the amount of water in the reservoir has tripled since early December.

It leapt from less than 29 percent capacity to 87 percent between December 9, 2015 to March 23, 2016.

Hunt explained FBR officials began to slow the water release rate on Wednesday and is expected to fall back to 5,000 cubic feet per second by Monday.

Though the increase in water isn't enough to combat the drought on even footing, it does help improve the ocean-warming weather patterns El Nińo has been spreading.

Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the Drought Mitigation Center in Nebraska, told Reuters that a four-year drought will require much more than El Nińo's water to bail California out.

"We have added a lot of moisture and have had pretty good snows and rains in the state but the drought has been significant enough that you're not going to reverse all those issues in a single winter," Fuchs added.

Despite the ongoing drought, Lake Shasta's contributions to the Sacramento River is a step in the right direction to help bail out farmers and provide clean drinking water to residents.

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