How the water flows

● monitored ○ context

Southern California draws on three imported systems. This site monitors the State Water Project (Sierra/Feather) and the Colorado River; the LA Aqueduct (Owens) and Kern are shown for context only.

flowchart TB
  classDef mon fill:#14324a,stroke:#4dabf7,stroke-width:2px,color:#e9ecef;
  classDef ctx fill:#2a2a2a,stroke:#6c757d,color:#adb5bd,stroke-dasharray:4 3;

  SOCAL["Southern California demand
MWD · LA Basin · AVEK"]:::ctx subgraph COLO["COLORADO RIVER"] direction TB UCS["Upper Colorado snowpack
SNOTEL · basin % of median"]:::mon PWL["Lake Powell — Glen Canyon
elev · storage · unreg inflow"]:::mon LEE["Lees Ferry gauge
daily flow"]:::mon MEA["Lake Mead — Hoover
elev · storage"]:::mon HAV["Lake Havasu — Parker Dam
elev · storage"]:::mon PHX["Phoenix / Tucson"]:::ctx UCS --> PWL --> LEE --> MEA --> HAV HAV -->|Central Arizona Project| PHX end HAV -->|Colorado River Aqueduct| SOCAL subgraph SWPS["STATE WATER PROJECT — Sierra / Feather"] direction TB SIE["Sierra snowpack
CDEC pillows · SWE"]:::mon ORO["Lake Oroville — Feather
storage · elev · inflow"]:::mon SHA["Shasta — CVP context
storage · elev"]:::mon DEL["Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta"]:::ctx AQ["California Aqueduct
Edmonston PP over the Tehachapis"]:::ctx SNL["San Luis Reservoir
storage · elev"]:::mon CAS["Castaic — West Branch
storage · elev"]:::mon SIL["Silverwood — East Branch
storage · elev"]:::mon PER["Lake Perris — East Branch end
storage · elev"]:::mon AVK["AVEK offtake
Antelope Valley"]:::ctx SIE --> ORO --> DEL SHA --> DEL DEL --> AQ AQ --> SNL AQ -->|West Branch| CAS AQ -->|East Branch · Pearblossom PP| SIL --> PER AQ -.-> AVK end CAS --> SOCAL SIL --> SOCAL subgraph LAA["LA AQUEDUCT — Owens / Mono · LADWP · not monitored"] direction TB OWN["Mono / Owens snowpack
+ Owens River"]:::ctx SFC["San Francisquito Canyon
Power Plants 1 and 2 · St Francis site"]:::ctx BOU["Bouquet Reservoir"]:::ctx CSC["Sylmar Cascades"]:::ctx OWN --> SFC --> BOU --> CSC end CSC --> SOCAL subgraph KRN["KERN RIVER — not monitored"] direction TB KER["Kern River"]:::ctx --> ISA["Lake Isabella"]:::ctx --> BAK["Bakersfield / Kern ag"]:::ctx end HAP["Merced at Happy Isles — Yosemite
daily flow · Sierra index"]:::mon SIE -.->|same Eastern Sierra snow| HAP click PWL "/reservoirs/POWELL/" "Lake Powell — full record" click MEA "/reservoirs/MEAD/" "Lake Mead — full record" click HAV "/reservoirs/HAVASU/" "Lake Havasu — full record" click ORO "/reservoirs/ORO/" "Lake Oroville — full record" click SHA "/reservoirs/SHA/" "Shasta Lake — full record" click SNL "/reservoirs/SNL/" "San Luis Reservoir — full record" click CAS "/reservoirs/CAS/" "Castaic Lake — full record" click SIL "/reservoirs/SLW/" "Lake Silverwood — full record" click PER "/reservoirs/PRR/" "Lake Perris — full record" click LEE "/rivers/" "Rivers — Lees Ferry flow" click HAP "/rivers/" "Rivers — Happy Isles flow" click SIE "/snowpack/" "Snowpack — Sierra pillows" click UCS "/snowpack/" "Snowpack — Upper Colorado basin index"

The Sierra and Colorado systems tend to run dry in the same years (our records put the correlation at r ≈ 0.6), which is why leaning one pipe on the other is limited exactly when it is needed most.