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A record-baking heat wave is scalding California, with major consequences for the state’s most important reservoir: its snowpack.

Providing about a third of the state’s water supply, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is a vital source of spring and summer runoff that refills reservoirs when the state needs the water most.

But a warm wet storm followed February’s snow, and now, March temperatures are shattering records — prompting warnings of rapid snowmelt and swift rivers.

Historically, the snowpack is at its deepest in April. But climate change is shifting runoff earlier, leaving less water trickling down the mountains in warmer months for homes, farms, fish, hydropower and forests.

“In an ideal world, you’d have your reservoir full right now, and this additional huge snowpack reservoir that we know will help replenish and provide more water supply,” said Levi Johnson, operations manager for the Central Valley Project, the massive federal water system that funnels northern California river water to the Central Valley and parts of the Bay Area.

This year, he said, “we’re not going to have that.”

California’s reservoirs are in good shape, brimming above historic averages with many nearing capacity. But that summertime snow bank on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada is disappearing early, and fast — dropping to 38% of average for mid-March statewide.

It’s not yet the worst snowpack on record: that distinction belongs to 2015, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown stood on brown, barren slopes of the Sierra Nevada to watch scientists measure the most meager snowpack in history.

But this year’s snowpack is rapidly approaching the worst five on record for April 1st, state climatologist Michael Anderson said — and it’s likely to worsen still as temperatures climb. From early to mid-March, the snowpack has been disappearing at a rate of roughly 1% per day.

It’s a sharp departure from the near-average conditions of last year, and presents both a challenge and a glimpse of the future for reservoir operators in the state.

Conflicting roles for reservoirs

Many of California’s reservoirs serve a dual role: stoppering flood flows and storing water for drier times ahead.

Those roles sometimes conflict — as they did at Lake Mendocino, which dried to a mud puddle during the 2012–16 drought. Rigid federal operating rules forced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release vital water supplies from the dam to make room for winter floods that didn’t come.

The dire water shortages that followed spurred an experimental partnership called Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations, between the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes and state, federal and local agencies.

The program incorporates advanced forecasting and weather observations into reservoir release decisions at Lake Mendocino. It prevented the reservoir from going dry during the most recent drought, according to Don Seymour, deputy director of engineering at Sonoma Water, which co-manages the reservoir.

Now, 165 miles away in the Sierra Foothills, Yuba Water Agency is eyeing adopting the same program for New Bullards Bar, a reservoir roughly eight times bigger than Lake Mendocino that’s fed by Sierra snowmelt on the North Yuba River.

The reservoir supplies water to more than 60,000 acres of farmland in Yuba County as well as users south of the Delta. But early snowmelt is complicating efforts to store that water.

“We’re seeing snowmelt conditions in mid-March that we normally don’t see until at least mid-May,” said general manager Willie Whittlesey. “It’s pretty obvious that this is the runoff — this is the snowmelt — and it’s just happening about two months early.”

The reservoir is nearly full at 114% of average for this date and 84% of total capacity.

But when snowmelt arrives early, the agency can’t catch it once the reservoir reaches a certain level — even when no storms are in the immediate forecast. Federal rules require Yuba Water to maintain a certain amount of empty space until June to absorb potential floodwaters, according to Whittlesey.

Yuba Water is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to update this decades-old rulebook, Whittlesey said, but until then it must request special permission to store the extra water.

Though the agency has received permission in the past, this year it’s also contending with a rupture in a major pipe to one of its hydropower facilities, which is forcing the agency to hold back more water behind the dam.

Whittlesey said he suspects that the combination of flood-control requirements and damage control after the pipe failure is likely costing them tens of thousands of acre-feet of snowmelt.

The California Department of Water Resources, which manages Lake Oroville — the state’s second-largest reservoir — told CalMatters that it’s storing water beyond its normal flood control limits, with permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In the Bay Area, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, California’s second-largest urban water supplier, owns and operates the Camanche and Pardee reservoirs in the Central Sierra foothills.

“We’re working to save every drop in light of the warm temperatures that we are experiencing now, and in light of all the zeros that we are seeing in terms of a rain or snow forecast,” said spokesperson Andrea Pook. “The last time that we had run off this early was in 2015.”

Pook said the district is releasing less water from its reservoirs now, in order to preserve more for the fall when salmon migrate upriver to spawn.

“We’re tracking to not necessarily be in a drought situation. But I am not convinced that we’re going to fill our reservoirs by July 1st, which is our usual goal,” Pook said.

Improved forecasts after a major miss

Even as California suffers record heat and early snowmelt, the state is better prepared than in the past.

Five years ago, state forecasters badly missed their runoff predictions — overestimating the snowmelt expected to refill reservoirs by up to 68%. Dry soils and a parched atmosphere drank up the runoff before it could flow into storage. Farms and cities scrambled in the middle of a drought as supplies fell far short of expectations.

This year is different. Major reservoirs are already above historic averages, and early season storms soaked the soil beneath the snowpack, making it less likely to swallow the runoff.

The state has also been working on better forecasts.

“Things have substantially improved,” said Andrew Schwartz, Director of UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, in an email to CalMatters.

Johnson, at the federal Central Valley Project, said that the state and federal water delivery systems are in a better spot than five years ago, and that forecasts haven’t made a major miss since.

But the season’s early melt may still leave a gap.

“It’s going to get us through this year just fine,” Johnson said. “But it’s not as ideal as having that additional snow reservoir ready to run off through summer, and replenish what we’re going to be releasing.”

Improved snowpack modeling and soil moisture estimates, experimental temperature measurements at different snow depths, university collaborations and incorporating weather outlooks are helping, according to the Department of Water Resources.

Still, between state budget shortfalls and federal cuts, challenges remain, Anderson said.

Efforts to install more soil moisture sensors in national forests have run into permitting slowdowns at the U.S. Forest Service, which has shed thousands of employees under President Donald Trump.

“You wait in line a lot longer,” Anderson said. “That’s been the biggest limitation of late. There just isn’t anybody there.”

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A Trump administration attorney conceded “there aren’t enough Americans to take these jobs” at a federal court hearing in Fresno this week as he defended a policy that would cut pay to immigrant laborers.

The lawsuit, filed by the United Farm Workers in the U.S. District Court for Eastern California, challenges a federal wage rule tied to the H-2A agriculture visa program, which allows U.S. employers to hire temporary workers from abroad, mostly from Mexico, for agricultural jobs not filled by domestic workers.

At issue is whether that new rule lowers wages in a way that could ripple through the broader workforce and affect U.S. workers by driving down their pay. Federal law requires H-2A wages not undercut domestic pay.

The case highlights the ag industry’s dependence on immigrant labor at a time when the Trump administration is using military-style tactics to crack down on immigration, while at the same time trying to make it cheaper for growers and farmers to hire temporary foreign workers.

Growers argue that labor costs have been rising for decades, warning that without changes, some farms may shut down.

The union representing farmworkers argued in court filings that employers, especially those in agribusinesses, will expand the pay cut to every farmworker, including American workers.

U.S. District Judge Kirk Sherriff said he planned to issue a written ruling soon that would either uphold or suspend the Trump administration policy.

The new interim rule spits H-2A workers into two tiers, resulting in 92% of farmworkers being categorized as “unskilled” and setting their pay to the 17th percentile of average wages, meaning 92% of farmworkers would earn what the bottom 17% of Americans make.

The nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute has estimated the minimum wage for many farmworkers would fall to $13.70 an hour. Their average minimum wage last year was $17.43. California’s minimum wage is $16.90.

Alexandra McTague Schulte, an attorney representing the U.S. Department of Labor, argued that the government is obligated to protect American workers from the adverse effects of wages from H-2A laborers.

The labor department refused to concede that bringing in foreign labor at reduced wages would affect American workers’ wages. Schulte said the proposed lower minimum wage for H-2A visa holders would not affect citizens because farmers already can’t find enough workers, meaning the demand for labor is greater than the supply.

In an exchange, Sherriff seemed to disagree. He said setting wages for the vast majority of H-2A farmworkers at a “level way lower than similar workers, including Americans”, would undercut the market.

“Isn’t that just math?” Sherriff asked.

Schulte did not answer directly, saying, “I’m not good at math, your honor.”

Outside court, UFW President Teresa Romero said immigrant laborers are in a weak position to bargain for better pay.

“We know that many of the workers don’t speak English. We know that many of the workers are told ‘if you don’t like it, go somewhere else,’” she said, noting that many are undocumented and don’t feel they can speak up.

Balancing the need for labor with immigration policy is an issue the U.S. has wrestled with for decades, dating to the 1950s and an Eisenhower-era program named with a slur for Hispanics. The H-2A program is a direct descendant of the Bracero program, an agreement between the United States and Mexico to bring 4.5 million temporary workers to fill agricultural and railroad labor shortages during World War II.

Protestors hold up signs and flags during a rally against H-2A wage cuts in front of the Robert E. Coyle Federal Building in Fresno on March 18, 2026. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters

Today in California, temporary workers do everything from herding cattle to pushing carts and selling fruit bars and ice cream, according to federal records. The number of certified H-2A workers exploded in the Golden State until 2022, but dropped by 7% in 2023. That year, about 88,000 of them entered the U.S. with a California work destination.

Mixed signals from Trump on farmworkers

The Trump administration vowed that the “largest deportation operation in American history” would give U.S. workers better jobs and pay. But it has also quietly tried to collaborate with farmers to address their shrinking workforce. And top Trump officials have acknowledged that raids and crackdowns have led to further shortages.

In October, the Labor Department wrote in a regulatory filing that finding workers is more difficult following the immigration raids.

“The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal work force,” the document said, “results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.” The document also said American workers are not interested in and do not have the skills to perform agricultural jobs.

That also contradicts U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who has said the farm workforce would one day be 100% American.

Trump’s tornado of policy changes on immigration, starting in his first hours in office, have created chaos in courts and fear and confusion at the border for legal temporary workers.

In 2025, a group of about a dozen H-2A workers who had crossed legally into the U.S. through the San Ysidro Port of Entry to harvest fruit in Fallbrook were ordered the next day to appear in immigration court and then mistakenly placed in removal proceedings. Some said they feared they would end up in an El Salvadoran prison for coming to work legally.

Trump said in June that his administration was working on “some kind of temporary pass” for immigrants who are not legally authorized to work but have jobs on farms and in hotels.

The preliminary examination for a man accused of attempted murder for allegedly attacking a 75-year-old man in the Arcata Community Forest began Thursday.

The proceedings involved questioning of witness Cameron Neff, an Arcata Police Department officer, who interviewed 51-year-old suspect Shawn Kolpak following his arrest and responded to assist with the crime scene.

Under questioning from the prosecution, Neff testified Kolpak appeared to have a problem who stacked sticks in the forest (who was referred to as “the stick person” during today’s hearing) and testified Kolpak had called Arcata police the week prior to the attack to report a person stacking sticks.

Victim Bill Spenceley’s friend had reported Spenceley would often pick up sticks off the trail to maintain the path and stack them, something he informed Neff of following the attack.

During questioning, Neff said Kolpak told him he was “annoyed by the person who was stacking sticks,” but not so annoyed he would do anything.

Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees questioned Neff on Kolpak’s general state of mind — Kolpak told Neff he stayed in the van he lived in for 20 hours a day to avoid interacting with people, and was afraid of interacting with others.

He told Neff he didn’t feel that way in custody and was relieved to be arrested —something Rees argued was evidence of at least a minimal awareness of guilt, with Deputy Public Defender David Celli strongly disagreeing.

Kolpak and Spenceley each hiked in the community forest every morning, and Neff said they exchanged good mornings. Neff said Kolpak was walking in the forest the day of the attack, January 30.

Deputy Public Defender David Celli objected to a number of pieces of the testimony — and called for it to be stricken from the record.

He noted Thursday’s testimony hinged on another officer reading his client his Miranda Rights, and Judge Kaleb V. Cockrum agreed to strike the testimony later if it were found that he hadn’t been read his rights, but allowed for the questioning to continue.

Celli questioned Neff on how many people walk in the forest — pointing out the forest has multiple access points throughout town and hundreds are on the trails daily.

He also sought to hear what Spenceley’s friend had told him about mountain lion sightings in the forest, his possible dislike of mountain bikers, and information that Spenceley had fallen recently — though Rees objected to hearsay for these pieces of evidence and many were stricken from the record.

The preliminary hearing aims to determine if there is sufficient evidence to hold Kolpak for a trial — the hearing is set to continue Friday.

Celli sought a fact-finding hearing for another case, if any information was brought up in the hearing. In this separate, open case, Kolpak is accused of assaulting an employee of Eureka Natural Foods in McKinleyville with an exercise weight.

For Spenceley’s attack, Kolpak was charged with attempted murder and aggravated mayhem, with an enhancement due to the age of the victim. Aggravated mayhem is punishable by life imprisonment in state prison.

Kolpak is being held in the Humboldt County jail without bail and appeared while in custody.

According to a Monday update from his family on GoFundMe, Spenceley remains in a “very slow recovery phase.”

“There have been moments when he responds to commands that give us hope for a full recovery. But there are also setbacks, including breathing complications that have required him to return to the ICU,” said the GoFundMe, which asked for support and prayers for the man.

The update said his loved ones are playing his favorite music and old family songs. “You can tell he hears them and is listening, which brings comfort and hope to our hearts.” The update said Bill still has a long road ahead and describes Bill as a fighter.

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On March 19, 2026, at approximately 2:00 p.m., a School Resource Officer (SRO) with the Eureka Police Department (EPD) was notified of a reported drive-by shooting involving a possible BB gun near Eureka High School, which resulted in injury to a juvenile. Upon arrival, the SRO located three victims. An additional occupied vehicle was also struck during the incident.

Officers conducted an area search for the suspect vehicle, described as a black four-door sedan, possibly a Ford Fusion with tinted windows and occupied by four individuals. The vehicle was not located, and no further description of the suspects is available at this time. Detectives are currently on scene conducting the investigation and obtaining video footage from surrounding residences.

This remains an active and ongoing investigation. Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact EPD’s Criminal Investigations Unit at (707) 441-4300.

As the nation reels from unearthed sexual assault allegations made against civil rights and union leader Cesar Chavez, Humboldt County is also dealing with the fallout.

Though there are monuments devoted to Chavez nationwide, California, in particular, has tons. Streets, parks, and memorials of all kinds are being renamed. A bill to rename his eponymous holiday, celebrated on his birthday, March 31, was announced today by California’s legislature. If passed, it will be renamed Farmworkers Day. 

Here in Humboldt, there’s a playground with signage honoring Chavez, and work projects dedicated to him hosted by Cal Poly Humboldt. 

A list of Chavez’s accomplishments at Hammond Park.

Eureka’s Hammond Park has a small playground with two Chavez-related signs installed about 15 years ago: one telling visitors that the park was built to honor his life and values, and another with a timeline of his personal history and accomplishments. Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery told the Outpost that the park was not officially named after him, and that the signs would likely be removed. The city hasn’t decided when that’ll happen, or what they’ll be replaced with. 

Cal Poly Humboldt has traditionally sponsored annual volunteer projects on Cesar Chavez Day, such as working at a community garden. A university spokesperson told the Outpost that the volunteering will go on, but under a different name. 

CPH sent this statement:

The recent allegations about Cesar Chavez are deeply concerning. We stand with and support survivors, and we recognize the courage it takes to come forward. We also recognize the impact of the United Farm Workers movement, and all those who’ve fought so hard to uplift communities.

In that spirit, Youth Educational Services (Y.E.S.) established the annual Serve-a-Thon. For years, Cal Poly Humboldt students have devoted their “day off” on the Cesar Chavez state holiday to supporting community wellness.

In light of the allegations, references to Cesar Chavez Day were removed from the Serve-a-Thon’s website to keep the focus on the important work of Y.E.S., and the event will take place as planned. The University is proud of Y.E.S.’s longstanding commitment to making a positive impact on the North Coast.

Cesar Chavez day is a state holiday, which we are legally obligated to recognize by providing a day off for our employees. If there are changes at the state level, we will adjust accordingly.

The unboxing. Video via Huffman’s Facebook page.

Here’s some news that we weren’t expecting. Humboldt’s Congressman, Rep. Jared Huffman, has written a book, and it’s a book about Huffman’s first-hand experience with the reach of Christian nationalism in the federal government.

The cover.

The book is titled No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism, and it’s published by W.W. Norton. Foreword from Rep. Jamie Raskin. It’s available for pre-order now — here’s the link at the publisher’s website — and it’ll be released on Aug. 18.

Huffman — a founder of the Congressional Freethought Caucus — is currently running for re-election, and he’s running in a newly redrawn district that includes Redding — home of the Bethel Church empire. It’s a pretty Christian place! 

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

From Congressman Jared Huffman, a behind-the-scenes look at the shocking extent of Christian nationalism’s reach in our government—and the fight to defend church-state separation.

Sinclair Lewis is said to have predicted, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” Democratic congressman Jared Huffman witnessed something eerily like that vision on January 6, 2021. That was his wake-up call to the shocking power of Christian nationalism.

No Prophets argues that Christian nationalism is now America’s most dangerous political movement. Huffman uncovers the landscape of this movement — who they are, what they want, and how they plan to get it — and reveals how it has destabilized our nation more than most recognize. Blending deep research with untold stories from inside our government, he examines how this violent confederation of religious extremists is undermining science, education, foreign policy, and the very architecture of our democracy. But, Huffman argues, it’s not too late.

Provocative and clear-eyed, No Prophets exposes an existential threat to our democracy and compels us to reclaim the values core to our secular republic.

PREVIOUSLY

• End the War: Arcata City Council to Decide on Adopting a Resolution Condemning the Iran War

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The Arcata City Council passed a resolution last night condemning the ongoing war in Iran and demanding its end.

The resolution points out the high cost of the war (almost $1 billion daily), the likelihood of significant, deadly escalation, and the potential illegality of the attacks as reasons they oppose it. It asks that the U.S. end the attacks, stops supplying weapons to Israel, that Congress invokes the War Powers Act, and that normal diplomatic negotiations resume immediately with Iran.

Councilmember Sarah Schaefer suggested the idea, she said, with councilmember Meredith Matthews’ support. Neither of them was under any illusions about Arcata affecting the war’s course at all (Matthews said she wasn’t expecting to wake up tomorrow and see Arcata credited with ending the war), but they said it felt important to speak out. The council had been buffeted by requests from community members to put a resolution on the Iran war on the agenda, and to do so quickly. 

“Do I think this is going to end any war?” Schaefer asked. “No. I don’t believe that. This is largely, in my opinion, a performative action, but I think performative actions like this are important because it provides a temperature check for the public and for us on where we stand on these issues that are gravely important to people.”

“I also think that it is a local issue,” she continued. “As we’re seeing our government pulling away all our grant money for different projects, as people are losing health care and benefits are being taken away from people, we’re still spending billions and billions of dollars on what is not even now called our defense budget; it is our Department of War’s budget, and it is a war budget…Rising militarism is a key sign of a slide into fascism, and we are doing it constantly.”

Schaefer credited former Arcata mayor Dave Meserve with helping her with the resolution’s draft. In the early 2000s, Meserve attracted the attention of the national media by backing a city council resolution calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and an end to the war in Iraq. 

“War is always wrong, as far as I’m concerned,” Meserve said during the public comment period at last night’s meeting. “But when you have a totally unprovoked attack, with no real threat against the United States from Iran, and in total violation of the UN charter, of all international law, and of the U.S. Constitution because it was never considered by Congress — then there’s just no way this war can go on.”

Most of the dozen commenters were in favor of the resolution’s passage, though there were a few that called it “antisemitic.” 

“I do not support war,” local pro-Israel activist Tamar Krigel said. “I believe that conflict is not resolved through violence, but through agreement, dialogue, and peaceful solutions. But I will not accept a resolution that describes division and misinformation as a call for peace. The resolution is not a natural or thoughtful statement. It is a politically motivated document, driven by individuals who present themselves as advocates for peace, but whose actions consistently tell a different story.”

“I’ve heard a couple people say, already, ‘Oh, this war is funding Israel’s genocide,’” a Zoom commenter said. “This is just a foil for people to slander the Jews.”

The resolution passed unanimously.