Carryover storage
Water held in a reservoir at the end of a season and carried into the next, buffering supply across dry years.
Storage converts a variable river into a dependable supply. Carryover is the portion that survives the season and starts the next one, and it is the reason a single dry year is usually survivable while three in a row are not.
Reservoir percent-of-capacity heading into winter is one of the clearest leading indicators of next season's curtailment risk, and it is public information updated daily.
Where this shows up in the data
See also
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