California’s especially wet winter has led to mudslides in beachfront communities, floods inland, massive snow accumulations and avalanche warnings in the mountains, and drought-parched reservoirs finally reaching their desperately needed capacities.

In one case, it left a swimming pool perched partway off a San Clemente cliff.

Drone visuals showed a swimming pool hanging off a cliff with a large chunk of the backyard missing from the house. Patio furniture and potted plants were scattered down the long drop toward the ocean. The pool’s owner, Clayton Robinson, said it’s possible they will lose everything and that his insurance company said it does not cover the hillside’s collapse.

“We had a major retaining wall, and it went down and took about half of our yard with it, and we have a pool. It’s the pool that’s holding the rest of the yard in, and the fire department right now is emptying the pool to take the pressure of the hill,” he said.

The mudslides came as California experienced its 11th atmospheric river, also known as a river in the sky, which is formed from warm water vapor rising from the Pacific Ocean. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, these several-hundred-meter-wide rivers transport an amount of water vapor equivalent to 15 times the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The winter storms have meant nearly unprecedented snow for the Sierra Nevada and Southern California Mountains, where some San Bernardino Mountain communities were slammed with up to 10 feet. When the devastating storm in early March swept through the region northeast of Los Angeles, families were literally trapped in their homes, many without power. Other residents faced collapsed roofs due to snow accumulations, requiring they evacuate to neighbor’s houses on foot, unable to drive the unplowed mountain roads. Goodwin and Son’s Market, a hub of community life in Crestline, California, and the only grocery store serving the town, had its roof collapse, leaving the already under-supplied residents dependent on community-organized food and medicine distribution networks.

California experienced a total of 14 atmospheric rivers, the last of which forced residents in at least two central California towns, Alpaugh and Allensworth, in Tulare County, to evacuate ahead of the threat of floods. The two small towns had already experienced multiple breaches in waterways, and repair efforts were “unsuccessful with the amount of water,” Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said.

The upshot is that after years of megadrought, this parade of precipitation has erased the drought status for much of California. In fact, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, half of California is currently experiencing no drought at all, compared to just three months ago, when 100 percent of the state was in some level of drought, from abnormally dry to exceptional.

Following the winter deluge, on March 24, Governor Gavin Newsom rolled back some drought emergency regulations. On a statewide level, these restrictions still mean no watering decorative public grass and washing vehicles without an automatic shutoff nozzle, among other regulations.

But his most recent order ends the voluntary 15% water conservation target and ends the requirement that local water agencies implement Level 2 of their drought contingency plans.

Specific to the pool and spa industry, while draining and refilling pools or filling new pools is not prohibited on a statewide level, that particular prohibition remains in effect at a local level for some communities. However, the only areas of the state where local entities implemented bans on issuing new pool permits — parts of Ventura and Marin counties and the city of Petaluma — have either already lifted those bans or plan to do so soon.

The California Pool and Spa Association is cautiously optimistic about what the winter weather of 2023 will mean for California’s water policies. In its February newsletter, the association said that while the early-season storms provided some drought relief, most officials have said it would be premature to loosen water restrictions.

Southern California still gets about ¼ of its water from the Colorado River, which didn’t really benefit from the storms and remains remarkably strained, said Metropolitan Water District General Manager Adel Hagekhalil.

Lake Mead and Lake Powell, both fed by the Colorado River, benefitted only slightly from the recent rains; Lake Mead is 183 feet below full, and Lake Powell is 179 feet below full.

Because of the severity of the crisis on the Colorado — and the federal mandate that California and six other states significantly reduce their use of water — more calls for conservation are still likely in the months ahead, according Hagekhalil.

This wet winter “shouldn’t take the momentum away from us continuing to work on building resiliency, recycling water, and storing water when we have it,” Hagekhalil said. “We should conserve as much as we can so we can save water to have it available when we need it.”

But there is still plenty of room for optimism regarding California’s upcoming water situation. One of the best places to see how dramatically the picture has changed is to witness the transformation that has taken place at Lake Oroville, the second largest reservoir in California, located three hours north of the San Francisco Bay area.

Just 16 months ago, the reservoir was so parched from severe drought that it was just 22% full. For the first time since it opened in 1967, its power plant had shut down because there wasn’t enough water to spin the turbines and generate electricity.

At capacity, Lake Oroville can reach 900 feet above sea level. It's currently at 860 feet, boosted by the atmospheric river storms.

Left: 2021 lake level; Right: 2023 Current lake level