{"id":15678,"date":"2016-03-02T13:37:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T21:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=15678"},"modified":"2016-03-02T13:37:59","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T21:37:59","slug":"californias-three-traditionally-wettest-months-end-with-statewide-snowpack-water-content-at-83-of-average-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=15678","title":{"rendered":"California\u2019s Three Traditionally Wettest Months End With Statewide Snowpack Water Content At 83% Of Average"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sacramento, CA..The statewide snowpack \u2013 source of much of the California\u2019s water supply \u2013 is only 83 percent of the March 1 average, the result of moderate precipitation since last October and relatively warm temperatures. \u201cMother Nature is not living up to predictions by some that a \u2018Godzilla\u2019 El Ni\u00f1o would produce much more precipitation than usual this winter,\u201d said DWR Director Mark Cowin. \u201cWe need conservation as much as ever.\u201d<br \/>\nThe Department of Water Resources (DWR) conducted its third media-oriented snowpack survey of the season today 90 miles east of Sacramento just off Highway 50 in the Sierra Nevada. Phillips Station is one of about 250 snow courses measured manually several times each winter.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fullscreen-capture-322016-12424-PM.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15683\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fullscreen-capture-322016-12424-PM.jpg\" alt=\"Fullscreen capture 322016 12424 PM\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fullscreen-capture-322016-12424-PM.jpg 640w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fullscreen-capture-322016-12424-PM-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fullscreen-capture-322016-12424-PM-122x74.jpg 122w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fullscreen-capture-322016-12424-PM-570x347.jpg 570w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fullscreen-capture-322016-12424-PM-120x74.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe allowfullscreen src='https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net?attachment_id=15680&#038;kgvid_video_embed[enable]=true' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' width='640' height='360'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, and his<br \/>\nsurvey team measured snow that was 58.3 inches deep at Phillips with a water content<br \/>\nof 27.1 inches. The Phillips readings are the best for early March since 2011, but<br \/>\nindividual snow courses are not generally representative of the entire mountain<br \/>\nsnowpack.<\/p>\n<p>The statewide readings suggest this may not be a drought-busting year unless<br \/>\nCalifornia receives heavy rain this month as it did during the \u201cMarch Miracles\u201d of 1991<br \/>\nand 1995.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, we\u2019re obviously better than last year but still way below what would be<br \/>\nconsidered adequate for any reasonable level of recovery at this point,\u201d Gehrke said.<br \/>\nElectronic readings of northern Sierra Nevada snow conditions found 23.1 inches of<br \/>\nwater content (89 percent of normal for March 1), 21.7 inches in the central region (85<br \/>\npercent of normal) and 17 inches in the southern region (75 percent of normal).<br \/>\nToday\u2019s snow measurements at Phillips were markedly improved compared to March<br \/>\n2015, when the depth was only 6.5 inches and the water content just 1 inch. Dry<br \/>\nconditions persisted in March, and Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. stood on bare<br \/>\nground on April 1 when he mandated a 25-percent reduction in water use throughout<br \/>\nCalifornia.<\/p>\n<p>Traditionally, half of the state\u2019s annual water falls as rain or snow during December,<br \/>\nJanuary and February. Precipitation in December and January measured at weather<br \/>\nstations monitored electronically by DWR was 170 percent of the two-month average,<br \/>\nbut October, November and February rainfall was far below normal. Snowfall since<br \/>\nDecember 1 has mirrored that pattern.<\/p>\n<p>In normal years, the snowpack supplies about 30 percent of California\u2019s water needs as<br \/>\nit melts in the spring and early summer. The greater the snowpack water content, the<br \/>\ngreater the likelihood California\u2019s reservoirs will receive ample runoff as the snowpack<br \/>\nmelts to meet the state\u2019s water demand in the summer and fall.<\/p>\n<p>Among the eight reservoirs with capacities of 1 million acre-feet (MAF) or more tracked<br \/>\nby DWR at the website below, all are currently below average storage for this date,<br \/>\nfrom New Melones (31 percent) to Lake Shasta (83 percent). The only major reservoir<br \/>\nwith current storage above its historical average on this date is Folsom Lake (111<br \/>\npercent).<\/p>\n<p>Detailed information on major reservoir storage is found here:<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/cdec.water.ca.gov\/cdecapp\/resapp\/getResGraphsMain.action<br \/>\nElectronic snowpack readings can be found at:<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/cdec.water.ca.gov\/cdecapp\/snowapp\/sweq.action<br \/>\nFor earlier readings, click the calendar icon below the map, select a date, then<br \/>\nRefresh Data.<\/p>\n<p>Governor Brown declared a drought State of Emergency on January 17, 2014 and<br \/>\ndirected state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for water shortages. On<br \/>\nApril 1, 2015, when the statewide snowpack\u2019s water content was historically low at 5<br \/>\npercent of that date\u2019s average, Governor Brown mandated a 25-percent reduction in<br \/>\nwater use across the state.<\/p>\n<p>Conservation \u2013 the wise, sparing use of water \u2013 remains California\u2019s most reliable<br \/>\ndrought management tool. Each individual act of conservation, such as letting the lawn<br \/>\ngo brown or replacing a washer in a faucet to stop a leak, makes a difference over time.<br \/>\nWater Year 2016 precipitation is found at: http:\/\/cdec.water.ca.gov\/snow_rain.html<br \/>\nLook in the right-hand column for the Northern Sierra 8-station index for updated<br \/>\nrainfall readings in the critical northern portion of the state, as well as the San<br \/>\nJoaquin 5-station and Tulare Basin 6-station links<\/p>\n<p>For a broader snapshot of current and historical weather conditions, see DWR\u2019s \u201cWater<br \/>\nConditions\u201d and \u201cDrought\u201d pages:<br \/>\nWater Conditions Page:<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www.water.ca.gov\/waterconditions\/waterconditions.cfm<br \/>\nDrought Page:<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www.water.ca.gov\/waterconditions\/index.cfm<br \/>\nEveryday water conservation tips at Save Our Water:<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www.saveourwater.com<br \/>\nInformation on the State\u2019s turf and toilet rebate program:<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www.saveourwaterrebates.com\/<\/p>\n<p>Visit SaveOurWater.com to find out how everyone can do their part, and visit<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/drought.ca.gov to learn more about how California is dealing with the effects of the<br \/>\ndrought. The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water<br \/>\nProject, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local<br \/>\nwater districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for<br \/>\nfuture statewide water needs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sacramento, CA..The statewide snowpack \u2013 source of much of the California\u2019s water supply \u2013 is only 83 percent of the March 1 average, the result of moderate precipitation since last October and relatively warm temperatures. \u201cMother Nature is not living up to predictions by some that a \u2018Godzilla\u2019 El Ni\u00f1o would produce much more precipitation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-life-style","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fullscreen-capture-322016-12424-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}