LAKE MATHEWS – (INT) – Even though rain and snowfall is above normal this season, California is still mired in a drought.

An estimated 32 percent of the state is considered in an unprecedented drought and the primary reservoirs are at less than half of capacity.

Storms have not replenished water at Lake Mathews and Diamond Valley Lake here in the Inland Empire. Bob Muir at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California says those reservoirs depend on imported water.

“But if storms are hitting the watersheds that we depend on, it’ll definitely have an effect.”

Water managers say they need twice the amount of a normal rainy season to begin to impact the drought.

In the mountains, Big Bear Lake is 11-feet below its full mark and there’s plenty of room for more water.

Groundwater levels are still dangerously low.

Story Date: January 5, 2015