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Heavy Rainfall Leads to Warm Springs Spillage

Nearly 10,000 acre-feet drained off; high precipitation brings snow to Tahoe ski country.

From Bay City News Service

Recent unseasonably heavy storms have required operators to drain water from some Bay Area reservoirs, including The Warm Springs Dam near Healdsburg.

The Warm Springs Dam rose by 11,984 acre-feet on Sunday alone from rainfall and runoff, according to Sudhakar Talawki, a spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources.

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The spillage prompted the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which oversees the dam, to drain more than 6,100 acre-feet out of Lake Sonoma and another 3,400 as of Tuesday, Talawki said.

"We are definitely at more (rain) than what we would expect for this time of year," Talawki said.

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Early rainfall in California has also expanded the snow pack statewide to 146 percent of normal for this time in December, according to the state water agency.

At the state's Heavenly Valley measuring station at South Lake Tahoe, falling snow boosted the accumulated snow level from 48 inches on Tuesday to 58 inches today, the water agency reported.

The Heavenly Mountain Resort, a ski facility, has seen a record amount of snowfall this December, according to Russ Pecoraro, resort spokesman.

"We're heading into our snowiest months, January, February and March, so it is shaping up to be a great year for snowfall," Pecoraro said. 

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