LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – The winter of 2025 hasn’t measured up to 2024 and is far short of the records set in 2023. Despite that, the Eastern Sierra. Northern Nevada and Northern California are still in good shape as we move into snowmelt season.
April 1 is considered the date when the snowpack reaches its highest snow water total before melt begins.
The measurement of the snowpack at Phillips Station near Sierra-at-Tahoe and the rest of the west slope gives a picture of water heading to California this spring and summer. The measure of the snowpack at Mt. Rose and other points in the Lake Tahoe Basin gives a picture of water heading to Nevada through the Truckee River.
Eastern Nevada is a mixed bag with better mountain snowpack conditions near Austin, Eureka, and Ely, but well below normal snow in Great Basin National Park. Southern Nevada should expect a lean water year with less than normal streamflow predicted for the Virgin River and the Colorado River inflow to Lake Powell.
The Lake Tahoe Basin snowpack is at 94-103 percent of normal, 122-151 percent across Northern Nevada, 86 percent in Eastern Nevada, 88 percent in the Upper Colorado, and 30 percent in the Spring Mountains on April 1.
Water year precipitation stands at 96-131 percent across the Sierra basins and northern Nevada. March brought above normal precipitation to nearly all basins. This increased water year precipitation in Eastern Nevada to 103% and in the Spring Mountains to 84 percent of normal for April 1.
Most reservoirs important to northern Nevada are storing near normal to well above normal amounts for this time of year. Combined storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead is down 691 kaf from this time last year, with storage at 33 percent of capacity.
In California, it was the third consecutive year that the snowpack was close to or above average.
Some of the local areas and their percentage of April 1 average snowpack:
Heavenly Valley – 91% Marlette Lake – 103% Ward Creek – 119% Squaw Valley – 84% Carson Pass – 91% Caples Lake – 86%
The current water year as compared to the highest (1982-83), the lowest (2014-15), and last year:
The water content of the snowpack is important as it allows the states’ water managers to forecast snowmelt and the summer’s water availability. Thirty percent of California’s fresh water is supplied by snowpack.
As a state, California is at 100 percent of normal for April 1, with the southern region at 84 percent, northern region at 120 percent, and the central region which is our local region, at 96 percent.
California reservoirs are looking strong, with the north at 114-144 percent of average, and statewide the lowest is at 95 percent of average (Castiac).
