Snowpack at Echo Summit measured at 183% of average

More signs that California is rebounding after five years of drought were evident on Echo Summit Thursday morning as the snowpack measured at 183 percent of average. This snow water equivalent (SWE) reading by the team from the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program was 46.1 inches.

The readings represent 183 percent of the long-term average at the Phillips measuring station near Sierra-at-Tahoe. Statewide, the electronic readings from 95 sites in the Sierra showed the snowpack at 164 percent of average, or 45.8 inches. Average for all of the Sierra Nevada is 27.9 inches

The average at this Phillips is 25.2 inches SWE. In January, the reading was 6 inches, February had 28 inches and the beginning of March was 43.5 inches.

SWE is the depth of water that theoretically would result if the entire snowpack melted instantaneously. That measurement is more important than depth in evaluating the status of the snowpack. On average, the snowpack supplies about 30 percent of California’s water needs as it melts in the spring and early summer.

Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, conducted
DWR’s survey today at Phillips and said of his findings, "The storm track shifted away from California during March, but we still have a very substantial snowpack, particularly in the higher elevations in the central and southern Sierra. This is an extremely good year from the snowpack standpoint,” he said, adding that this year’s snowpack ranks in the upper quarter of historic snowpacks and is providing “great reservoir recovery.”

Electronic measurements indicate the water content of the northern Sierra snowpack is 40.8 inches, 147 percent of the multi-decade March 30 average. The central and
southern Sierra readings are 50.5 inches (175 percent of average) and 43.9 inches (164 percent of average), respectively. Dr. Michael Anderson, State Climatologist, observed: “Although the record pace of the snowpack accumulation fell off significantly in March, California enters the snowmelt season with a large snowpack that will result in high water in many rivers through the spring."

Many Californians continue to experience the effects of drought, and some Central
Valley communities still depend on water tanks and bottled water. Groundwater – the source of at least a third of the supplies Californians use – will take much more than even an historically wet water year to be replenished in many areas.
California’s climate is the most variable of any state. Historically, it swings from drought to flood and back to drought. In addition, as global warming drives up average temperatures in California, more precipitation will fall as rain, not as snow stored in the Sierra Nevada and other mountains. To help prepare for these ever-wider extremes, Californians can learn ways to save water every day by visiting SaveOurWater.com.