![\"\"](\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Fullscreen-capture-222017-123428-PM.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nClick Above To Watch DWR Presentation<\/p>\n
More telling than a survey at a single location, however, are DWR\u2019s electronic readings today from 101 stations scattered throughout the Sierra Nevada. Statewide, the snowpack holds 31 inches of water equivalent, or 173 percent of the February 2 average (18.1 inches). On January 1 before a series of January storms, the snow water equivalent (SWE) of the statewide snowpack was 6.5 inches, just 64 percent of the New Year\u2019s Day average.<\/p>\n
Measurements indicate the water content of the northern Sierra snowpack is 26 inches,
\n144 percent of the multi-decade average for the date. The central and southern Sierra
\nreadings are 32 inches (173 percent of average) and 32 inches (200 percent of
\naverage) respectively.<\/p>\n
The Phillips snow course, which is near the intersection of Highway 50 and Sierra-at-
\nTahoe Road, is one of hundreds that will be surveyed manually throughout the winter.
\nManual measurements augment the electronic readings from more than 100 sensors in
\nthe state\u2019s mountains that provide a current snapshot of the water content in the
\nsnowpack.<\/p>\n
Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, conducted
\ntoday\u2019s survey at Phillips and reported that \u201cwe\u2019ve got a very good snowpack, a very
\nrobust snowpack on the ground right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first four months of Water Year 2017 (October 1 to today) were wet due to
\natmospheric river storms and rainfall from lesser storms that drenched the state. All
\nthree regions DWR monitors continuously for their rainfall had recorded more by
\nJanuary 23 than their annual averages for the entire water year, which runs from
\nOctober 1 through September 30:
\n\u2022 The average annual precipitation at the eight-station Northern California index is
\n50 inches; that total was surpassed on January 20, 112 days into Water Year
\n2017. Water Year 1997 had more rain in the region during the October-through-
\nJanuary period (58.22 inches) than during the same period this water year (53.2
\ninches).
\n\u2022 The San Joaquin Basin rainfall total today is 204 percent of average for the date.
\n\u2022 Tulare Basin rainfall is 207 percent of average for the date.<\/p>\n
Shasta Lake, California\u2019s largest surface reservoir now holds 114 percent of its
\nhistorical average on today\u2019s date. One year ago, Shasta\u2019s storage was just 78 percent
\nof its February 2 average. Similarly, Lake Oroville, the State Water Project\u2019s largest
\nreservoir, holds much more water today than a year ago \u2013 121 percent of its historical
\naverage today compared to just 68 percent one year ago.<\/p>\n
Although this year, so far, is exceptionally wet, storms can cease. For example, after the
\nprevious drought declaration was ended in March 2011 \u2013 and the arrival of some storms
\nin November and December 2012 \u2013 severe drought returned, leading to the driest four
\nyear period (and some of the warmest years) in California\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last 10 water years, eight have been dry, one wet, one average,\u201d said State
\nClimatologist Mike Anderson. \u201cHopefully this year will end up being wet, but we cannot
\nsay whether it will be one wet year in another string of dry ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many Californians continue to experience the effects of drought and a number of
\nCentral Valley communities still depend on water tanks and bottled water. Lake
\nCachuma in Santa Barbara County is at just 12 percent capacity, and groundwater \u2013
\nsource of at least a third of the supplies Californians use \u2013 will take much more than a
\nfew storms to be replenished in many areas.<\/p>\n
California\u2019s climate is the most variable of any state. Historically, it swings from drought
\nto flood and back to drought, and climate change is intensifying those. In addition, as
\nglobal warming drives up average temperatures in California more precipitation will fall
\nas rain, not snow stored in the Sierra Nevada and other mountains. To help prepare for
\nthese ever-wider extremes, Californians should be making conservation a way of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sacramento, CA…Today\u2019s Department of Water Resources (DWR) manual snow survey at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada range found a snow water equivalence of 28.1 inches, a significant increase since the January 3 survey, when just 6 inches was found there. The average as measured at Phillips since 1964 is 18.4 inches. Snow water equivalence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32976,"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":true,"_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-32975","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\/2017\/02\/Fullscreen-capture-222017-123428-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32975","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=32975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}