Thanks to a number of sizable snow storms during the past two months, this was a Sierra Nevada snowpack survey that people were anticipating – instead of dreading.
Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, said today that the Sierra Nevada snowpack water content measured 136 percent of normal.
That snow total is quite noticeable in the Lake Tahoe region, where all 14 of the ski resorts are open and enjoying a fantastic holiday season that they are hoping continues into 2016.
The water content of the Sierra Nevada snowpack was measured at above normal levels today (Dec. 30) when officials took the winter’s first manual survey. However, the effect this will have on the drought remains unclear.
Gehrke said the snow measurement was a good sign, but that’s it’s only a start.
Gehrke has been doing these measurements for many years, several times each winter and early spring. On Wednesday, he plunged a measuring pole into a thick field of snow in Phillips, a small unincorporated community in El Dorado.
Gehrke’s survey followed an electronic measurement last week that put the water content of the snowpack at approximately 11 percent above average. Even more snow has fallen since then in the Sierra.
Last Jan. 1, the snowpack was a mere 45 percent of the historical average. On April 1, it had dropped to a record low of 5 percent.
Today’s findings was a dramatic contrast with April 2015 when Gehrke was accompanied by Gov. Jerry Brown to Phillips and the two men were photographed in a meadow that was completely barren of snow.
Brown then used the moment to announce an executive order, requiring the state’s first-ever mandatory reductions in residential water use.
The snowpack provides approximately 30 percent of California’s water supply when it melts and rushes through rivers and streams to fill reservoirs that remain critically low.
Despite the higher than average snowpack measurement, officials are saying that surveys during the remainder of the winter will indicate whether the snowpack’s runoff will be sufficient to replenish California’s reservoirs by this summer.
Gehrke stated that the snow must continue falling through April in order for him to be confident that the drought is easing.
Visit http://cdec.water.ca.gov to check out the electronic snowpack readings.
Jeffrey Weidel can be reached at skiweidel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jeffweidel and visit his website at www.tahoeskiworld.com.
