Sierra snowpack is faring better than any January since 2011

It is still too early to know whether enough precipitation will have fallen by the end of winter's wet season to significantly impact the drought, but, snowpack and reservoir storage has benefited from recent storms.

Officials from the Department of Water Resources (DWR) will be making their monthly snowpack measurement near Sierra-at-Tahoe on Tuesday, February 2, but electronic readings taken on January 28 show the snowpack is at 116 percent of average. The statewide water content of 18.7 inches is greater now than on any January 26 since 2011.

Storage in the state’s major reservoirs has increased significantly since December 1, but all remain far below their historical averages for late January, as demonstrated by the graphic in this story.

The Phillips snow course (located at the Highway 50 entrance to Sierra-at-Tahoe) is one of dozens that will be measured manually during a 10-day window around February 1 to determine the water content of the snowpack, which normally
contributes about 30 percent of California’s water when it melts.

Below-normal precipitation and warm temperatures throughout the winter months during Water Year 2015 combined to create a historically meager snowpack, according to DWR’s records. The snowpack at the start of February and March was only 23 percent and 19 percent of average respectively on those dates.
By April 1, when the snowpack normally is at its peak, electronic readings showed the snowpack’s water content was only 5 percent of normal for that date, the lowest on record. The scant snowpack and subsequent drop in snowmelt runoff were
large contributors to confirming California’s fourth consecutive year of drought.

The statewide snowpack’s water equivalent of 18.7 inches today is 116 percent of the historical average for January 26, and DWR’s drought managers say the snowpack’s water content will have to be much greater than normal – perhaps 150 percent greater than the April 1 average of 28 inches – to have a significant effect on California’s drought, which now is four months into its fifth consecutive year.