Tuesday snow survey shows dismal 20 percent snowpack in central Sierra

Those who live in the Sierra Nevada already know about the minimal snowpack this winter. The monthly snow survey conducted Tuesday near Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort showed just that. The water content of the snow for California is at 19 percent of the average for this time of year, with the central Sierra at 20 percent of average.

California is getting close to a record that isn't necessarily one aims for: the most parched winter since records began being kept in 1950. So far, 2015 is neck and neck with 1977 (25 percent of average on March 1) and 1991 (18 percent of average on March 1) for the record. The last snowpack measurement will take place in 30 days. Is there a Miracle March in store?

White skiers and boarders were thrilled last weekend, it was also hopeful that the storm would help with totals, but snow levels in the Sierra Nevada are at or below what they were during the biggest drought years in the past.

Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, said there were 6.7 inches of snow on the ground at the survey spot on Tuesday. During the Jan. 29, 2015 measurement there was 2.3 inches at the same location.

The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which Californians rely on heavily during the dry summer months for their water needs, continues to disappoint this winter. Despite the snowfall in the Sierra Nevada Range over the weekend that gladdened ski and snowboard enthusiasts, it was not enough to offset weeks with no snow at all, the California Department of Water Resources notes in a news release.

Tuesday's manual survey at the Phillips snow course in the mountains 90 miles east of Sacramento found 0.9 inches of water content in the snow, just 5 percent of the March 3 historical average for that site. Electronic readings by the Department of Water Resources show the water content of the northern Sierra snowpack is 4.4 inches, 16 percent of average for the date. The central and southern Sierra readings were 5.5 inches (20 percent of average) and 5 inches (22 percent) respectively.

Statewide, 103 electronic sensors found Tuesday's snow water equivalent to be 5 inches, 19 percent of the March 3 multi-decade average. When DWR conducted the season’s first two manual surveys on December 30 and January 29, the statewide water content was 50 percent and 25 percent respectively of the historical averages for those dates.

The snowpack’s water content this year is historically low for early March. Only in 1991 was the water content of the snowpack lower – 18 percent of that early-March average. Manual surveys of 180 snow courses this year reveal even less water content – just 13 percent of the early-March average, the lowest in DWR’s records for this time of year. The difference between electronic and manual surveys is explained by the higher elevation of most electronic sensors, where they receive more snow than many of the lower-elevation snow courses.

After records for dryness were set in many parts of the state in January, two storms in early February delivered enough precipitation at eight northern Sierra weather stations to bring the month’s total up to historical standards there.

That short rainy interlude was followed by three weeks of virtually no rainfall in the northern Sierra, and precipitation at the eight stations since Water Year 2015 began on October 1 is now only 87 percent of average for that period. Further south, the 5-station San Joaquin index is 48 percent of normal, and the six-station index in the Tulare Basin is similarly far below normal at 51 percent.

Weeks of spring-like weather have produced more rain than snow when storms did arrive during California’s warmest winter on record. California’s historically wettest winter months have already passed, and it’s now almost certain that California will be in drought throughout 2015 for the fourth consecutive year, according to the department.

Unless this month approximates the 1991 “Miracle March” with significantly more precipitation than normal, the traditional wet season will end on April 1 with an alarmingly low amount of water stored in the mountains as snow.

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.