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SNOWSHOE-CLAD local media from Lake Tahoe to Sacramento turn out to report on the annual snow survey, as measured by Frank Gehrke, near Sierra at Tahoe on Feb. 28. Democrat photo by Shelly Thorene
Unseasonably warm weather is keeping the snowpack below average for this time of year according to the most recent readings taken by the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR).
Conducted on Feb. 28 by Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Survey for CDWR, only 29 inches of hard packed snow were measured at Phillips Station, which is located near Echo Summit.
However, Gehrke said things are not grim yet because the water content of the snow is actually higher than it was last year at this time. When measured on Thursday, it was 13.4 inches or 54 percent of average for this time of year. A year ago it was 3.9 inches.
The amount of snow measured on Thursday was also higher than this time last year when it was at only 17.7 inches.
“Clearly it’s not what we want to see,” Gehrke said, “but it’s better than it was last year.”
Combined with readings taken from other locations, the snowpack water content is 66 percent of average for February and only 57 percent of the average April 1 reading when the snowpack is normally at its peak.
Gehrke said the one bright spot is reservoir storage which is still above average due to the rain received in November and December.
According to the CDWR, Lake Oroville, the State Water Project’s principal storage reservoir, is at 113 percent of its average level for this date and Shasta Lake, the federal Central Valley Project’s largest reservoir, is at 107 percent of its normal storage level. Only the San Luis Reservoir is significantly below capacity at 60 percent.
CDWR reported that January-February of this year were the driest two months on record since 1920 and Gehrke said they don’t see any new storms on the horizon for the next 10 days.
“It’s unusual for March to come in really strong,” he said noting that storms on the East coast may signal less rain for California. ”The most productive months are January, February and March. That’s when we expect the major storms. When we don’t have them, that’s when you have problems.”
“As we get into April, we will start to draw down water because of the marginal snowpack,” Gehrke said. “As a result, reservoir levels may decline because there is not enough snowpack to refill them.”
The snowpack, often called California’s frozen reservoir, provides about one-third of California’s water.
Contact Dawn Hodson at 530-344-5071 or dhodson@mtdemocrat.net. Follow @DHodsonMtDemo on Twitter.
“Unseasonably warm weather is keeping the snowpack below average…”
This statement is FALSE. We had a big storm period in December, then the storms stopped, then an unusually COLD and DRY pattern has persisted, keeping the snowpack largely intact.
yes,don’t listen to the science of the DWP,hunches,speculations and memories are more reliable.As long as you can remember why you walked into another room
robertdnoll, these are the facts. We ended December, 2012 with precipitation 52.42 % above normal. The Sierra snowpack was proportionally above normal. From then until now we would have expected the Sierra pack to have been eroded by one or more warm Pacific storms. It has not. The winter has favored the preservation of the early deep pack – sunny but cold. After December precipitation virtually ended. Normal precipitation for February would have been 6.98″. We received only .41″ from a cold storm. The tropical Pacific storms have been kind to us by not showing up. November and December snow is usually back to the Pacific Ocean by now. We have been blessed with a cool though dry winter.
Thanks for the explanation Phil! So you see. “Unseasonably warm weather is keeping the snowpack below average…” is not a factual statement. This was a written interpritation of the report by the author. The reason we have a below average snowpack is the persistant high pressure over the West and ridging, keeping the storms to our North. NOAA is calling for 21″ at my house on Wed morning though! YippEE!
Crispy, there is a likelyhood of a chilly future for you guys . . . LINK – . . . the Sun is not behaving as expected. Instead, it is acting as if it is losing the ability to produce sunspots and is heading for its first Grand Minimum since the 1600s. . . Watching the Sun behave over the next few years should be quite interesting. And watch the climate too! In the past, a Sun without sunspots has always been accompanied by a climate that has cooled, significantly.
Chrispy(sorry, Chris)LINK – . . . the Sun is not behaving as expected. Instead, it is acting as if it is losing the ability to produce sunspots and is heading for its first Grand Minimum since the 1600s. . . Watching the Sun behave over the next few years should be quite interesting. And watch the climate too! In the past, a Sun without sunspots has always been accompanied by a climate that has cooled, significantly.