By Jim Peifer
Special to The Sacramento Bee
January 23, 2026 • 5:00 AM
For generations, Californians have relied on the Sierra snowpack as a critical part of our water supply — providing about a third of the water we depend on each year. Times are changing.
While California’s weather has always had its swings, the long-term reliability of that natural storage system is now at risk. Climate change is expected to significantly reduce the water historically supplied by snowpack, and this winter is demonstrating what that shift looks like.
In the Sacramento region, water agencies have a proven way to manage that kind of variability: the Sacramento Regional Water Bank. While the state may be drought-free for the first time in 25 years, the goal is to always be ready when the weather inevitably turns dry. Like a savings account, a Water Bank makes it possible to deposit water during wet times and withdraw it during dry times. The Sacramento region’s Water Bank can hold enough water to fill Folsom Reservoir twice and can offset the loss of snowpack projected with climate change.
Recent storms brought significant rainfall to Northern California, filling reservoirs and saturating soils. At the same time, snowpack in the Northern Sierra remains below normal — just 61% of average — because many of those storms were warm and fell as rain instead of snow. The result is water that arrives earlier in the year, when it is harder to store for use later in the summer and fall.
That contrast matters. It highlights a growing reality for California: precipitation totals alone no longer tell the water supply story. Timing and form matter as much as volume.
Continue reading the full story in the Sacramento Bee here.