Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, conducted the second survey of 2017 during February
Credit: DWR

April 26, 2017 - SACRAMENTO – The Department of Water Resources (DWR) conducts five manual snow surveys at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada from around the first of January through May each calendar year. The snowpack’s water content usually peaks around April 1, after which the sun’s higher position in the sky contributes to rapid melting and a diminished snowpack.

DWR’s May 1 survey will be the last one of 2017. Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, will conduct the survey beginning at 11 a.m. just off Highway 50 near Sierra-at-Tahoe Road, about 90 miles east of Sacramento.

California has experienced exceptionally high rain and snow precipitation this water year. Since early April, the snow water equivalent (SWE) of the statewide snowpack has been growing compared to the average SWE on each day’s date going back decades. The statewide snowpack’s SWE water content today is 45.8 inches, which is 192 percent of this date’s historical average – the highest percentage for an April 25th this century.

The Phillips snow course has been measured each winter since 1941 and is one of hundreds that will be traversed during a 10-day period around May 1 to determine the water content of the snowpack, which normally contributes about 30 percent of California’s water. Manual readings supplement DWR’s electronic data.
Source: DWR