So far, things are going well for Northern California heading into what is, on average, the busiest part of the rain and snow season. As of Monday morning, many locations around the region are reporting above-average rainfall totals since the water year began on Oct. 1. Downtown Sacramento has had close to 4 inches as of the most recent observation on Sunday. A large portion of that rainfall has come in the last couple of days.In the Sierra, the average snowpack water content is also above average. The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab site in Soda Springs has recorded over 96 inches of snow so far this season. That's more than 250% of the average for the date.That is a promising sign, given that about a third of California's annual water supply comes from runoff from the snowpack. The more water that can be drawn from the snowpack, the less that gets tapped from the reservoir groundwater supply. It is important to note that a fast start to a water year does not guarantee a good year for the water supply as a whole. Take the 2021-22 season as a perfect example. After a major October storm and a very busy December, rainfall and snowpack measurements were way above average heading into the new year. By early April, the snowpack had almost completely shriveled away, leaving nothing to draw from for much of the spring. As of Monday afternoon, water levels on Northern California's major reservoirs are between 20-30% of total capacity, running anywhere from 45-65% of the average for the date. Water managers say that surface reservoirs aren't a great indicator of drought status at the moment because they are designed to be held at low levels in the late fall and early winter."We are in flood control mode now," says Jeanine Jones, the interstate resource manager for the Department of Water Resources, "So we aren’t allowed to keep our reservoirs as full this time of year, and so that makes the numbers actually look a little bit better.”Flood control releases are not currently planned but may be needed if the weather pattern remains active in the coming weeks. In the meantime, smaller releases are made regularly from Folsom, Oroville and other major reservoirs to meet other year-round requirements. Those requirements include water quality maintenance for the delta region and Bay Area as well as streamflow requirements for wildlife.Jones says that water levels will be allowed to rise gradually throughout the winter and spring as the risk of a major storm lowers. "Then, hopefully, there is snowpack up in the mountains and we start storing that snowpack runoff because that is what provides the water supply for cities and farms during the summertime,” Jones said.While many tend to focus on reservoir levels as a way to gauge drought status, Jones says that groundwater supply is a much better indicator.“There’s actually a lot more water stored in California’s groundwater basins than there are in California’s reservoirs,” Jones said. Historically, those groundwater supplies have been severely overdrawn, but water managers are working on improving water use strategies to prevent more of that in the future through projects like the Sacramento Regional Groundwater Bank.In short, the 2022-2023 wet season is off to a promising start, but real drought relief will take several years of consistently wet and snowy winters.