Sierra snowpack ends season at 97% of average

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 water content of snow in the Sierra was measured at three other locations Wednesday, with Alpha at 106 percent and Tamarack Flat measured at 101 percent. Lyons Creek was below average like Phillips, measuring at 94 percent of average.

This is a much different scenario than one year ago when Governor Jerry Brown stood on bare ground at Phillips Station when he mandated a 25-percent reduction in water use throughout California. At that time, the water content of the snowpack was only five percent of normal, the lowest dating back to 1950.

California’s statewide snowpack usually reaches its peak depth and water content each year around the first of April, after which the snow begins to melt as
the sun’s path across the sky moves a little further north each day. Therefore,
conditions today were just about as good as they’re going to get this year when the Department of Water Resources (DWR) conducted ithe media-oriented snow survey.

The same is true for the statewide snowpack, which some had expected to benefit more than it has from El Niño conditions. Statewide, water content of the mountain snowpack today is only 87 percent of the March 30 historical average.

In normal years, the snowpack supplies about 30 percent of California’s water needs as it melts in the spring and early summer. The greater the snowpack water content, the greater the likelihood California’s reservoirs will receive ample runoff as the snowpack melts to meet the state’s water demand in the summer and fall.