phillips station

With California off to a dry start for the water year, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced Tuesday an initial State Water Project (SWP) allocation of 10 percent of requested supplies for the 2021 water year.

Initial allocations are based on conservative assumptions regarding hydrology and factors such as reservoir storage. Allocations are reviewed monthly and may change based on snowpack and runoff information. They are typically finalized by May.


SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The precipitation of March did not do enough to boost the snowpack in the Sierra to high figures, but it did give surveyors better figures than the 47 percent of average one month ago. The manual measurement of the snowpack at Phillips Station near Sierra-at-Tahoe showed the snow depth was 43.5 inches with a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 16.5 inches. This is 66 percent of the April 1 average at that location southwest of Lake Tahoe.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) conducted the second manual snow survey of the season at Phillips Station Thursday, and they found 40.5 inches of snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE) of 14.5 inches. The snowpack at this location is 79 percent of the February average, with the rest of the state measuring in at 73 percent of average.

The Phillips Station total is 58 percent of the seasonal average.

"It's decent but below average," said Sean de Guzman, chief of DWR’s Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Section.

PHILLIPS STATION, Calif. - In a final reading of the Sierra snowpack at Phillips Station west of Lake Tahoe, officials from the Department of Water Resources (DWR) found it to be 188 percent of average with 47 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 27.5 inches.

Statewide, California’s snowpack sits at 31 inches of SWE, which is 144 percent of average for this time of year. Snow water equivalent is the depth of water that theoretically would result if the entire snowpack melted instantaneously.

PHILLIPS, Calif. - The numbers weren't much of a surprise Thursday as the Department of Water Resources (DWR) conducted the third Phillips Station snow survey of 2019.

What they found in the spot they've been using to measure since 1941 was good news.

The manual measurement recorded 113 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 43.5 inches, which is more than double what was recorded last month at this location.

Statewide, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is 153 percent of average for this date, thanks to several atmospheric rivers during February.

PHILLIPS STATION, CALIF. - In 2017, the water content on March 1 at Phillips Station was measured at 185 percent of normal. One year later it is a different story, but much better than just a week ago.

The water content of the snow measured at Phillips Station on March 5, 2018 is 39 percent of the historical average with the 41.1" snow at the measuring spot 14 miles west of Lake Tahoe containing a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 9.4".

The SWE is the amount of water that would come out of the snow if melted all at once.

Snow was hard to find Wednesday during the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) first measurement of the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada this winter.

Snowpack is off to a slow start, with just 3 percent of average found at Phillips Station, The measurement January 3 revealed a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 0.4 inches. The average is 11.3 inches in early January at Phillips, as measured there since 1964. It's elevation is 6,873 feet and located at the intersection of Highway 50 and Sierra-at-Tahoe Road.

The Sierra Nevada snowpack continues to build during one of the wettest winters in California’s recorded history and this was evident as the monthly snow survey was conducted by the Department of Water Resources at Phillips Station near Sierra-at-Tahoe.

The snow water equivalent (SWE) measured was 179 percent of average, or 43.4 inches.

The 113 inches of snow at Phillips Station contains the fifth-highest March 1 reading of the SWE. In 1969, the record reading was 57.4 inches of snow-water content in 160.9 inches of water.

South Lake Tahoe, Calif. - The weekend's heavy snowfall didn't do enough to bring good news during Tuesday's monthly manual snowpack survey at Phillips Station.

Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, led a media tour on January 3, 2017 to their normal spot near the turnoff to Sierra-at-Tahoe and found a snow water equivalent of six inches, which is 5.3 inches less that the average early-January total of 11.3 inches, 53 percent of normal.

“Mother Nature is not living up to predictions by some that a ‘Godzilla’ El Niño would produce much more precipitation than usual this winter,” said California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Director Mark Cowin. “We need conservation as much as ever.”

Due to the prospect of finding only bare ground, the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) did not conduct a May 1 snow survey at Phillips Station at the top of Echo Summit near Sierra-at-Tahoe.

“We can’t count on the Sierra snowpack to replenish our water supplies,” said California Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin. “Major reservoirs are dropping at a time when they typically would be filling with melted snow. We need careful, sparing use of water across the state, because we don’t know when this drought will end.”

The first snow survey of the season found more bare ground than snow throughout the higher elevations of the state. The survey, conducted by the Department of Water Resources on Friday, found the 9.3" of snowpack at Phillips Station to be 20% of the long term average. A dismal 2.3" of water content was found.

PHILLIPS STATION – Scanning the field at the base of Sierra-at-Tahoe, Frank Gehrke wonders if he needs to bring his equipment out of the vehicle. It turns out ...www.laketahoenews.net/.../water-conten...