Last Winter's First Snow Survey Had Trouble Finding Snow
December 2015 - SACRAMENTO – The Department of Water Resources (DWR) will conduct this winter’s first manual snow survey on December 30 at Phillips Station off Highway 50 near Sierra-at-Tahoe Road approximately 90 miles east of Sacramento.
Electronic readings of the Sierra Nevada snowpack today show its statewide water content is 9.3 inches, 112 percent of the December 23 average. (See list at the end of this advisory showing the statewide snow water equivalents on or about January 1 from 2002 through 2015.)
The Phillips snow course is one of dozens that will be measured during a 10-day window around January 1 to determine the water content of the snowpack, which normally contributes about 30 percent of California’s water when it melts.
Last winter was remarkably warm; the average minimum temperature in the Sierra Nevada was 32.1 degrees Fahrenheit, the first time this value was higher than water’s freezing point since record-keeping began. On January 1, 2015, the water content of the snowpack was 47 percent of that date’s statewide historical average.
Below-normal precipitation and warm temperatures throughout the winter months combined to create a historically meager snowpack last winter, according to DWR’s records. The snowpack at the start of February and March was only 23 percent and 19 percent of average respectively on those dates. By April 1, when the snowpack normally is at its peak, electronic readings showed the snowpack’s water content was only 5 percent of normal for that date, the lowest on record.
Although the snowpack’s water equivalent this year is slightly above the historical average for late December, DWR’s drought managers say precipitation would have to be much greater than normal to have a significant effect on California’s drought, which now is three months into its fifth consecutive year.
Source: DWR
