snow survey

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The fifth and final snow measurement of the year at Phillips Station took place Thursday, and results were very slim. The team from the Department of Water Resources (DWR) measured 1.5 inches of snow with a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 0.5 inches which is three percent of average for May 1.

The SWE measures the amount of water contained in the snowpack, providing a more accurate forecast of spring runoff than snow depth alone.

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.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - While the snowpack isn't epic in measurement (yet), it rose above normal with this past two week's storms that brought five feet of snow to the upper elevations.

During the January 3, 2019 monthly measurement of the snow and its water content at Phillips near Sierra-at-Tahoe, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) found the snow to be at 80 percent of normal. The prior year at the same time was a dismal three percent of normal.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors meeting held in South Lake Tahoe had to come to an early end Thursday after a City fire official deemed the over 150 people crammed into the airport council chambers too many over the maximum occupancy of 112 to be safe.

Approximately 300 people filled the airport, all wanting a chance to participate in the County's discussion of amending their vacation home rental (VHR) ordinance. Those not in the council chambers filled the airport lobby.

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).

A "Miracle March" never materialized in the Sierra Nevada in 2016 and current snowpack shows that it would have been necessary to get totals above average, something needed to combat the drought in California.

In the last official snow survey of the year at Phillips Station near Sierra-at-Tahoe, the snow was 58.4 inches deep with a water content of 26 inches, just 97 percent of the long-term average in that location.

“While for many parts of the state there will be both significant gains in both reservoir storage and stream flow, the effects of previous dry years will

The New Year is getting off to a phenomenal start with snow falling at Lake Tahoe. It seems long ago since we’ve had snow around the lake, but as California and Nevada continue to grapple with four years of drought and water shortages, the snow couldn’t be falling at a better time.

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.”

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2014 – A limited water supply is predicted west of the Continental Divide, according to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) National Water and Climate Center (NWCC) in its first forecast of 2014. The NWCC also predicts normal water supply east of the Continental Divide and will continue to monitor, forecast and update water supplies for the next six months.

From Tahoe’s mountaintops to the lake’s sandy bottom, scientists from the University of Nevada, Reno continue to study and find solutions to the breadth of issues that face the entire Lake Tahoe Basin. Their research is making a tangible contribution to the decisions, policies and practices that guide the basin’s environmental health.

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.

Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part installment.During the second survey of the 2012 water year on Feb. 1, Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Survey program, measu...