![\"\"](\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/dwrlogo.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSacramento, CA…The Department of Water Resources (DWR) first manual snow survey east of Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada found little snowpack, which was predictable after a dry December throughout California. Measurements at Phillips Station revealed a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 0.4 inches, 3 percent of the average SWE of 11.3 inches in early January at Phillips as measured there since 1964 (http:\/\/bit.ly\/2CjmFiV). SWE is the depth of water that theoretically would result if the entire snowpack melted instantaneously.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we\u2019re only a third of the way through California\u2019s three wettest months, it\u2019s far too
\nearly to draw any conclusions about what kind of season we\u2019ll have this year,\u201d DWR
\nDirector Grant Davis said. \u201cCalifornia\u2019s great weather variability means we can go
\nstraight from a dry year to a wet year and back again to dry. That\u2019s why California is
\nfocusing on adopting water conservation as a way of life, investing in above- and belowground
\nstorage, and improving our infrastructure to protect our clean water supplies
\nagainst disruptions.\u201d<\/p>\n
More telling than a survey at a single location, however, are DWR\u2019s electronic readings
\ntoday from103 stations scattered throughout the Sierra Nevada. Measurements indicate
\nthe SWE of the northern Sierra snowpack is 2.3 inches, 21 percent of the multi-decade
\naverage for the date. The central and southern Sierra readings are 3.3 inches (29
\npercent of average) and 1.8 inches 20 percent of average) respectively. Statewide, the
\nsnowpack\u2019s SWE is 2.6 inches, or 24 percent of the Jan. 3 average.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe survey is a disappointing start of the year, but it\u2019s far too early to draw conclusions
\nabout what kind of a wet season we\u2019ll have this year,\u201d said Frank Gehrke, chief of the
\nCalifornia Cooperative Snow Surveys Program who conducted today\u2019s survey at
\nPhillips. \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of time left in the traditional wet season to reverse the dry trend
\nwe\u2019ve been experiencing.\u201d<\/p>\n
California traditionally receives about half of its annual precipitation during December,
\nJanuary, and February, with the bulk of this precipitation coming from atmospheric
\nrivers (ARs). So far this winter, an atmospheric high-pressure zone spanning the
\nwestern United States has persistently blocked ARs from reaching the state. If that zone
\nwere to move or break up, storms could deliver considerable rainfall and snow this
\nwinter.<\/p>\n
Davis noted that forecasting accuracy falls off dramatically after just a week or 10 days
\ninto the future. \u201cCurrent technology and computer modeling can tell us what our weather
\nmight be weeks into the future, but we\u2019re essentially blind to what the weather will be
\nbeyond the two-week mark,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we are putting in so much effort to
\nimproving medium- and long-range modeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phillips snow course, near the intersection of Highway 50 and Sierra-at-Tahoe
\nRoad, is one of hundreds that will be surveyed manually throughout the winter. Manual
\nmeasurements augment the electronic readings from the snow pillows in the Sierra
\nNevada that provide a current snapshot of the water content in the snowpack.<\/p>\n
Results of today\u2019s manual readings by DWR near Echo Summit are as follows:
\nLocation Elevation Snow Depth Water Content % of Long-Term Average
\nAlpha 7,600 feet NA NA NA
\nPhillips Station 6,800 feet 1.3 inches 0.4 inches 3
\nLyons Creek 6,700 feet NA NA NA
\nTamarack Flat 6,500 feet 6 inches 1.1 inches 10.3<\/p>\n
California\u2019s exceptionally high precipitation last winter and spring has resulted in aboveaverage
\nstorage in 154 reservoirs tracked by the Department. DWR estimates total
\nstorage in those reservoirs at the end of December amounted to 24.1 million acre feet
\n(MAF), or 110 percent of the 21.9 MAF average for the end of the year. One year ago,
\nthose reservoirs held 21.2 million acre-feet (MAF), 97 percent of average. End-of-year
\nstorage is now the highest since December 2012 (24.3 MAF), which was early in the
\nfirst of five consecutive water years of drought in California.<\/p>\n
DWR conducts five media-oriented snow surveys each winter near the first of January,
\nFebruary, March, April, and May. On average, the snowpack supplies about 30 percent
\nof California\u2019s water needs as it melts in the spring and early summer. The greater the
\nsnowpack water content, the greater the likelihood California\u2019s reservoirs will receive
\nample runoff as the snowpack melts to meet the state\u2019s water demand in the summer
\nand fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sacramento, CA…The Department of Water Resources (DWR) first manual snow survey east of Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada found little snowpack, which was predictable after a dry December throughout California. Measurements at Phillips Station revealed a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 0.4 inches, 3 percent of the average SWE of 11.3 inches in early January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1046,"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":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/dwrlogo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50645","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=50645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}