Water Extent highlights historic drought effects

Water Extent highlights historic drought effects
Blog

From 2011 to 2017, California experienced one of the worst droughts in state history.

Shasta Lake is California's largest reservoir. After many years in drought, the damage on the water reserves took its toll. Below are images are taken from a satellite which take high-definition colour images and other data on a frequent basis. On the left is an image of the dried-up Shasta Lake in October 2015. The exposed shoreline, a visible light tan colour, outlines the entire lake edge. On the right is the same lake in April 2017, but it appears as a lush blue-green colour nearly at capacity.

From 2011 to 2017, California experienced one of the worst droughts in state history.

Shasta Lake is California's largest reservoir. After many years in drought, the damage on the water reserves took its toll. Below are images are taken from a satellite which take high-definition colour images and other data on a frequent basis. On the left is an image of the dried-up Shasta Lake in October 2015. The exposed shoreline, a visible light tan colour, outlines the entire lake edge. On the right is the same lake in April 2017, but it appears as a lush blue-green colour nearly at capacity.

 

In October 2015, 99.87% of California was in drought.

The water levels can be monitored throughout the months, seasons, or years to see changes using remote sensing.

WaterExtent creates a masked image and water layer shapefile to analyze the reservoir capacities.

Flood monitoring

Here in October 2015, the water level was only 1.5 million acre-feet (1,85022 cubic km). 

The water levels can be monitored throughout the months, seasons, or years to see changes using remote sensing.

WaterExtent creates a masked image and water layer shapefile to analyze the reservoir capacities.

 

WaterExtent Powered by Harris Geospatial Services Framework (GSF) and HySpeed Computing, VegetationVitality

Here in October 2015, the water level was only 1.5 million acre-feet (1,85022 cubic km).

WaterExtent

Here in September 2016, the lake started to refill. It was measured at 3 million acre-feet (3,70045 cubic km).

 

Wildfires in 2016 raged even in northern California - an area heavily forested and traditionally not as dry as the south. The hazy effect in the image is visible smoke over Shasta Lake.

 

Atmospheric interference such as smoke and clouds can make imaging a challenge.

Flood monitoring by WaterExtent

Then in April 2017, the lake had reached over 4 million acre-feet (4,93393 cubic km). Record rains helped to refill the reservoirs, but also caused landslides. 

5 days after this satellite image was taken, the drought from 2011 to 2017 was officially declared as over.

 

Finally, in 2017, the drought was finished after 6 dry years

About WaterExtent

WaterExtent - Monitoring provides global insights on the location and quantity of one of the planet’s most valuable resources – water, which is critical for human health and welfare, food security, and environmental sustainability. WaterExtent is a geoservice that provides a time series of maps, clearly delineating the surface water extent from any non-aquatic features, such as land, vegetation, snow and ice which is suitable for farmers, researchers, government agencies, consulting and land use professionals available at cloudeo Store.

 

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