sierra snowpack

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.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Under a misty rain, the fourth, and perhaps final, measurement of the snowpack in Philips, California for 2019 is complete, and it's good news from the Department of Water Resources (DWR).

Their manual survey recorded 106.5 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 51 inches, which is 200 percent of average for the Phillips location outside Sierra-at-Tahoe.

Statewide, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is 162 percent of average.

PHILLIPS, Calif. - Under blue skies Thursday, January 31,the monthly snowpack measurement was conducted in Phillips, southwest of Lake Tahoe at the base of Sierra-at-Tahoe, and its good news.

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) snow survey team measured 50 inches of snow with a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 18 inches, almost double from a month ago.

The water content in the Sierra snowpack was measured in Phillips April 2, 2018 and it is at 49 percent of the April 1 average.

The California Department of Water Resources snow survey team did their final physical measurement of the year at their normal location in Phillips at the intersection of Highway 50 and Sierra-at-Tahoe Road, west of Lake Tahoe.

Depth of the snow was measured at 32.1 inches and it contained 12.4 inches of water which is 49 percent of long term average for April 1 at the location.

The snowpack measured in at 52 percent of average.

Even with the recent snowfall, the monthly measurement of the snowpack at Phillip Station west of Lake Tahoe was just 14 percent of the historical average. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) manual snow survey found little snowpack there, two months into what is typically California’s wettest three months.

Measurements at Phillips Station revealed a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 2.6 inches at Phillips as measured there since 1964. SWE is the depth of water that theoretically would result if the entire snowpack melted instantaneously.

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.

Monday was the final manual snow survey at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, and the snowpack is still measured at a healthy 190 percent of the May 1 long-term average of Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) which is 14.6 inches. Today's measurement was 27.8 inches.

The survey was conducted by the Department of Water Resources (DWR).

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.

As 2017 started, the Lake Tahoe basin and the rest of the Sierra Nevada were looking at a less than spectacular snowpack.

Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, measured the snow at Phillips (near Sierra-at-Tahoe) on January 3 and found the snow water equivalent of the snow at that location at 53 percent of normal.

Today, the Sierra snowpack is between 195-205 percent of average and the water content is 163 percent of average.

With nine to 15-feet of snow falling in upper elevations, and up to eight feet at lake level, things have turned around.

Even though the winter of 2016 brought a strong El Nino, it wasn't enough to recover from the previous years' dismal snowpacks.

In a report released by a team of researchers led by UCLA, the snow water equivalent (SWE) seen in 2015, when added to the previous three years of drought, was the worst seen in 1,200 years.

Since the SWE in the Sierra snowpack directly affects the state, the scientists also said that, even if the Sierra has average snowpacks, it will take
California until at least 2019 to recover.

The storms that hit the Lake Tahoe Basin over the last four days left behind much needed snow, bringing the season totals close to average.

The Sierra snowpack as of Monday, March 14, 2016 is at 92 percent of normal, with the central Sierra measurement at 94 percent.

Ski resorts around the lake are boasting measured snowfall very close to average as well. A couple of more storms are needed to bring most of the resorts to average though Northstar and Mt. Rose resorts are already there.

“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.”

Recent heavy rains and snow have added much needed water to the Sierra Nevada snowpack, bringing the snow water equivalent at Phillips Station to 25.4 inches, 130 percent of the February 1 average.

Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, led the monthly media-oriented manual snow survey near Sierra-at-Tahoe on Wednesday, leading the group to the measuring location which recorded a snow depth of 76.2 inches.

he El Niño weather pattern that's fueling a snowy start to 2016 for the Lake Tahoe region is among the strongest on record and likely to continue bringing storms to the region.

But the long-term climate prognosis for the Sierra Nevada and the planet as a whole is more troubling with rising global temperatures threatening to make cold, snowy winters less likely in the future.

That was the message two climate scientists delivered Friday to an audience of meteorologists gathered for a conference at Lake Tahoe.

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 survey of the Sierra Nevada snowpack on Thursday brought home the message that many were already guessing: a fourth straight year of drought is inevitable.

At just 12% of normal, the snow measured near Philips Station on Echo Summit was 7.1" deep and contained a dismal water equivalent of 2.3".

The absence of precipitation in January, normally California’s wettest month, has combined with warmer-than-average temperatures to produce a dismally meager snowpack for a drought-stricken state.

Thursday's measurement of the Sierra snowpack at Phillips, just west of South Lake Tahoe, shows dismal water content, even with the recent snowfall. While better than the results earlier this month, there is still far too little water in the still scant snowpack according to the Department of Water Resources.

The water found in the Sierra Nevada snowpack Thursday was just 66 percent of the long-term average, according to California water managers."The snowpack hasn't actually lost much water content sin...

The Sierra snowpack is off to a good start because of some recent storms that brought plenty of moisture to the region. It comes just in time for the first snow survey of the year.
"It's all just good news," hydrologist Dan Greenlee said. "This is fantastic."
The numbers for the first snow survey, this year, couldn't be much better. The snow amount is almost double the average for December. The snowpack is already about two-thirds of a full season's average, with three more months to go.

The snowfall in January gave the Sierra snowpack a boost, but it is still well below average, according to the National Weather Service in Reno. The graph above shows the Snow Water Equivalent from the current water year through Feb. 1, the average water year (1971-2000), and the 2010-2011 water year.
The Snow Water Equivalent for this water year through Feb. 1 is around 5 inches, compared to more than 20 inches this time last year, according to the weather service.