End Of The Drought?
Sacramento, CA – Today the California Department of Water Resources conducted its March measurement of the Sierra snowpack.
Spokesperson Don Strickland says California’s mountain snowpack is 107 percent of normal for the date, while last year at this time snow-water content was 80 percent of average.
California has had three straight years of below average snowpack, so the results are encouraging.
“It is looking good so far, but you always want to be cautious about making predictions about the weather because it can change very rapidly,” says Strickland. “If these figures hold true through the first of April, then I would say we are looking pretty good.”
The northern Sierra is 126 percent of normal, the central Sierra is 93 percent and the southern Sierra is 109 percent.
Lake Oroville, the State Water Project’s principal storage reservoir, is still recovering slowly after three dry years. Despite the recent storms, its storage level today is only 55 percent of average for this time of year.
It is also expected that dry soil conditions will absorb much of the snowpack’s water content that otherwise would help to replenish streams and reservoirs during the spring and early summer melt.
Written by bjhansen@mlode.com.
