I can just see it. “No fair! The ocean needs more California snowmelt water!”
Absolutely correct. California’s “water storage process” assumes that there are two phases to winter, early rains followed by melting snow. During phase one, they shuffle water off to Southern California to be stored. Then the melting snow refills the reservoirs. Problem is, the reservoirs are all brimming, so they will have to let a lot of water go to make room for the melting snow. You may be correct about the higher elevation of the snowpack this year, but as a skier, I can tell you that where the snow is, it’d damned deep, deeper by far than normal.