California reservoirs holding nearly twice as much water as at the drought's height

California's reservoirs are brimming after a winter of relentless storms and a late-spring heatwave that thawed the a big chunk of the snowpack.

The Golden State's system of 154 major reservoirs is holding 32,464,000 acre-feet according to the most recent June 12 state report with data pulled from an array of entities that own and manage these bodies of water, including the Department of Water Resources, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Corps of Engineers and several city water departments.

The state's reservoirs held 25,628,000 acre-feet on the same date last year, when El Niño was expected to bring extraordinary weather systems, but instead hit us with weak storms dropping average precipitation.

It's the number from 2015, when some California reservoirs were nearly dry, that reveals just how far we've come in two years.

The state's reservoir system held 17,240,000 acre-feet back in 2015.

That means we have nearly double the amount of water in reservoir storage this year compared to 2015.

RELATED GALLERY: Before and after: California reservoirs in 2016 vs. 2701

Before and after: Twitchell Reservoir March 2016 vs. March 2017 Before and after: Twitchell Reservoir March 2016 vs. March 2017 Photo: NASA Landsat 8 Satellite / Catalin Trif Photo: NASA Landsat 8 Satellite / Catalin Trif Image 1 of / 72 Caption Close California reservoirs holding nearly twice as much water as at the drought's height 1 / 72 Back to Gallery

"This is going to be a boon year for storage for California reservoirs," says Boone Lek with the California Department of Water Resources. "The storage is healthy and that's part of why we're out of the drought."

The reservoir conditions were at 112 percent of average on June 12, and while Lek says the next report doesn't come out until early July, he's certain we're still well over 100 percent of normal. The only major reservoir that is not above normal is Lake Oroville, where levels have been reduced while crews work to repair a damaged spillway that caused flooding fears early this year."

Keep in mind, this doesn't mean the reservoirs are completely full. Water managers have conducted releases from reservoirs all year to create space for more water that's pouring down from the mountains as a massive near-record-breaking Sierra snowpack thaws. Even in late spring and early summer, the releases have been major to counter the snowmelt.

"Most of the reservoirs on the San Joaquin Reservoir have been making high releases in the past month," Lek says. "In 2015, I can tell you with high confidence that we weren't making any flood releases at this time of year."

More than 1,000 reservoirs are spread up and down California, and 154 of the largest have a combined capacity of over 38,129,000 million acre-feet. Shasta - which can hold up to 4.5 million acre-feet of water - is the biggest, and an example of one of the state's reservoirs that's swelling after five years of drought (see drone footage of the lake filled with water above).

The reservoir is currently holding 4.2 million acre-feet of water as of June 29, even with ongoing releases meeting environmental demands and creating room for runoff, and its at 115 percent of average.

Back in 2015 when many house boating operations shut down because of lack of water, the lake held only 2.1 million acre-feet and was at 48 percent of average.

"One of the things about this year is we have plenty of water," says Louis Moore, a deputy public affairs officer with the Bureau of Reclamation. "We have to meet a lot of demands, but we have plenty of water to work with. I was up at the lake last night for a meeting and there were houseboats all over the place."

This story was updated on June 30, 2017, at 12:20 p.m.