Lisa Lien-Mager, Deputy Secretary for Communications for the California Natural Resources Agency, left, Michelle Meade with the National Weather Service, Grant Davis, Director of the California Department of Water Resources and Frank Gehrke, Chief of the Calif. Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, conduct the first snow survey of the 2018 season at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The survey site is approximately 90 miles east of Sacramento off Highway 50 in El Dorado County. Photo taken January 3, 2018.
Credit: Kelly M. Grow/ California Department of Water Resources

January 30, 2018 - SACRAMENTO – The Department of Water Resources (DWR) will conduct the second of five scheduled manual snow surveys in water year 2018, at Phillips Station in the Sierra on February 1, 2018.

The first survey at Phillips on January 3, 2018 found virtually no snow due to an exceptionally dry December.

The Phillips snow course is one of hundreds of locations that will be measured during the winter and early spring to support the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program.

Water managers use measurements of the snowpack’s water content to help them anticipate runoff from the mountains during the spring snowmelt.

More information on the importance of the snow surveys can be found at the California Data Exchange Center: http://cdec.water.ca.gov/snow/
Source: CA. DWR

For More Information: California’s 2018 First Snow Survey Finds Dry December Produces Below-Average Snowpack - Still Too Early to Draw Conclusions