California Tulare Lake communities are unlikely to flood this year

California officials on Monday said that communities near Tulare Lake will likely not experience drastic flooding this year as weather conditions improve following a series of powerful atmospheric river storms that refilled the basin.

Several weeks ago, scientists and officials had warned of worsening floods in the Central Valley due to a large amount of snowpack from the Sierra Nevada melting and sending more water into the basin. The forecasting prompted concerns over potential levee breaches and displacement of residents in communities like Corcoran and Stratford.

However, officials said they no longer expect those communities to flood due in part to state efforts to raise levees as well as farmers’ work to divert more water for irrigation. Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would spend $17 million to bolster the levees protecting Corcoran from floods.

Brian Ferguson, deputy director of crisis communications for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said during a news briefing Monday that officials are no longer anticipating as serious of damage as they were several weeks ago.

Forecasting models now suggest that Tulare Lake will not surpass a height of roughly 184 feet above sea level, though officials warned that the arrival of storms could accelerate snowpack melt and cause more flooding.

“We are in significantly better shape than we were several weeks ago,” Ferguson said. “However, we want to strongly emphasize we are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.”

Tulare Lake was the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River up until the late 1800s when its tributary rivers were diverted for agricultural irrigation and municipal water uses.

The resurrected lake now spans roughly ten miles from bank to bank on farmland used to grow almonds, cotton, tomatoes and other crops.

The California Department of Water Resources is working to divert additional water before it flows into the lake bed. The current floodwaters could remain for as long as two years.