Water conditions are much improved in California in 2017 after several years of drought in recent years dried up lakes and streams across the state.

Record rain and snow that fell on the state during the winter filled reservoirs and added over 70 feet of snow pack that is now melting under the blistering heat of summer.

In places like Millerton Reservoir and Pine Flat Reservoir runoff has filled the lakes to capacity.

In the case of Millerton, the reservoir by mid-July had surpassed its 520,500 acre-foot capacity and was overflowing down the face of Friant Dam into the San Joaquin River.

For San Joaquin Valley farmers who rely upon San Luis Reservoir, seeing the lake full after watching it fall so low that federal water managers delivered no irrigation water for two years to Westside farmers was a positive sight, though even then the Bureau of Reclamation, which delivers irrigation water to Valley farmers, would not promise 100 percent of their contractual deliveries for the 2017 season.