Heterogeneous snow accumulation in the mountains introduces uncertainty to water-supply forecasting in much of the world. Water managers’ awareness of the challenge may account for forecast errors in management decisions. We assess the impact of uncertainty in seasonal-water-supply forecasts on reservoir management using the western slope of the Sierra Nevada of California as a case study. We find that higher forecast uncertainty decreases the volume of water released from reservoirs between April and July, suggesting that water managers hedge against the possibility of lower-than-expected runoff. We modeled April-July water releases as a function of corresponding runoff forecasts, their reported uncertainty, and available storage capacity. An unbalanced (n=416) panel data model with fixed effects suggests that if uncertainty goes up by 10 units, water managers reduce releases by about 6 units, even holding the mean forecast constant. The forecast volume, its uncertainty, available storage capacity, and the interaction between forecasted volume and uncertainty were all statistically significant predictors (p < 0.005) of releases. Increased forecast uncertainty and increased available storage were significantly and inversely associated with April-July release volume, whereas forecast volume and the interaction between forecast uncertainty and forecast volume were significantly and positively associated with release volume. These results support the hypothesis that water managers behave as if they are risk-averse with respect to the possibility of less runoff than forecasted. Thus, reducing operational forecast uncertainty may result in more water being released, without the need for direct coordination with water managers.