Sierra Nevada snowpack not miraculous despite March precipitation
Submitted by editor on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 1:52pm
March precipitation in the Sierra Nevada was impressive, with more than 16 inches in water content, nearly two and one-half times the month’s average. Though the amount is encouraging, the snowpack hasn’t kept pace, as demonstrated Wednesday at a California Department of Water Resources snow survey in the Sierra above Lake Tahoe.
Frank Gehrke and his DWR snow survey team reported about average water content at Phillips Station on Wednesday. The statewide content was just 87 percent of average for the date.
“The effects of previous dry years will remain for now,” said Gehrke in a news release. In other words, California still has drought conditions.
California’s statewide snowpack usually reaches its peak depth and water content each year around the first of April, after which the snow begins to melt as the sun’s path across the sky moves a little further north each day.
Therefore, conditions Wednesday were just about as good as they’re going to get this year when the Department of Water Resources conducted its media-oriented snow survey at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada east of Sacramento.
The same is true for the statewide snowpack, which some had expected to benefit more than it has from El Niño conditions. Statewide, water content of the mountain snowpack today is only 87 percent of the March 30 historical average.
Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, and his survey team measured snow that was 58.4 inches deep at Phillips with a water content of 26 inches, just 97 percent of the long-term average there. The Phillips conditions for this time of year are dramatically improved compared to 2015’s zero depth and zero water content on April 1. Gov. Jerry Brown stood on bare ground that day when he mandated a 25-percent reduction in water use throughout California.
The statewide readings also are much better compared to last year, when the water content of the snowpack was only five percent of normal, the lowest dating back to 1950. Wednesday, the statewide snowpack’s water content is 24.4 inches, 87 percent of average.
Gehrke’s message to was essentially the same one he delivered four weeks ago at Phillips: “While for many parts of the state there will be both significant gains in both reservoir storage and stream flow, the effects of previous dry years will remain for now.”
Electronic readings of northern Sierra Nevada snow conditions found 28.1 inches of water content (97 percent of average for March 30), 25.2 inches in the central region (88 percent of average) and 19.3 inches in the southern region (72 percent of average).
