Precipitation is down by more than forty percent for November and December, and the Truckee River is at minimum flow.  Federal water master Chad Blanchard says a dry early season is not uncommon.
 
We still have a lot of winter to go … there’s a lot of time to catch up and it’s happened many times in the past where we started out dry and then we got pounded … so it just depends on what the rest of the winter does.
 
January is traditionally the Sierra’s wettest month.  But in this fickle El Nino year, the National Weather Service offers an ambiguous forecast for January, with an equal chance of above or below average precipitation.

Brian Bahouth KXJZ News.