First measurement in 2018 shows Sierra Nevada snowpack at 3 percent of normal
Submitted by editor on Thu, 01/04/2018 - 11:22am
Snow was hard to find Wednesday during the first official measurement of the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada for 2018.
Snowpack is off to a slow start, with just 3 percent of average found at Phillips Station, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
The Jan. 3 measurement revealed a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 0.4 inches. The average is 11.3 inches in early January at Phillips, as measured there since 1964. It's elevation is 6,873 feet and located at the intersection of Highway 50 and Sierra-at-Tahoe Road.
Jeff Anderson, a hydrologist from the Nevada Natural Resources Conservation Service, measured the snowpack at Mt. Rose on Dec. 26, finding 36 inches of snow with 11 inches of SWE. The spot Anderson measured is located at Mt. Rose, 8,000 ft above sea level. These measurements show 84 percent of normal for this time of year. Last year, the snowpack measured at 120 percent of normal at this time.
It is a much different story below 8,000 feet where even more snow is needed. Anderson found the Nevada snowpack at that level to be just 25 percent of average. The electronic readings for California show the snowpack at an overall 24 percent of average.
“As we’re only a third of the way through California’s three wettest months, it’s far too early to draw any conclusions about what kind of season we’ll have this year,” DWR Director Grant Davis said. “California’s great weather variability means we can go straight from a dry year to a wet and back again to dry. That’s why California is focusing on adopting water conservation as a way of life, investing in above- and below ground storage, and improving our infrastructure to protect our clean water supplies against disruptions.”
More telling than a survey at a single location, however, are DWR’s electronic readings today from 103 stations scattered throughout the Sierra Nevada. Measurements indicate the SWE of the northern Sierra snowpack is 2.3 inches, 21 percent of the multi-decade average for the date. The central and southern Sierra readings are 3.3 inches (29 percent of average) and 1.8 inches 20 percent of average) respectively. Statewide, the snowpack’s SWE is 2.6 inches, or 24 percent of the Jan. 3 average.
“The survey is a disappointing start of the year, but it’s far too early to draw conclusions about what kind of a wet season we’ll have this year,” said Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program who conducted today’s survey at Phillips. “There’s plenty of time left in the traditional wet season to reverse the dry trend we’ve been experiencing.”
California traditionally receives about half of its annual precipitation during December, January, and February, with the bulk of this precipitation coming from atmospheric rivers (ARs). So far this winter, an atmospheric high-pressure zone spanning the western United States has persistently blocked ARs from reaching the state. If that zone were to move or break up, storms could deliver considerable rainfall and snow this winter.
Some snow is expected for the Sierra through the weekend and the potential for wetter systems next week.
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