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The winter’s abundant snowfall in the Sierra Nevada was a godsend for California’s water needs.

The snowpack operates like a water tap for the state. In a perfect world, melted snow flows at an even pace into a network of waterways that help quench the needs of farmers and city dwellers through the dry months of summer.

That’s not exactly what’s happened this year.

“The melt was kind of coming off at a nice manageable pace until we decided to have the mother of all heat waves,” said David Rizzardo, snow surveys chief for the Department of Water Resources.

Punishing temperatures in June, hitting triple digits in places, essentially squandered much of the accumulated snow that water managers had hoped to have to replenish reservoirs.