As snow surveyors prepare to manually sample the snow content in the mountains, the Sierra snowpack is already recording above normal levels following a series of potent winter storms that brought much-needed snow and rain to drought-stricken California.
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According to officials, the Sierra Nevada snowpack supplies about 30% of California’s water needs, in form of snow melts.
Last Jan. 1, the snowpack was a meager 45 percent of the historical average.
California has saved a combined 25.5 percent since Brown issued the mandate in June calling for savings from 2013 use rates, the agency said. Both the depth and water content at Phillips on February 2 were the highest since 2005, when a depth of 77.1 inches and water content of 29.9 inches were recorded.
Officials say that despite the El Nino, California’s major reservoirs remain critically low, requiring continued conservation.
He plunged a measuring pole into 76 inches of snow near Echo Summit in the Central Sierra, which includes Lake Tahoe.
“That’s water that is still in our streams and in our reservoirs…it really shows the power of conservation and efficiency”, he said. The vast majority of them reported the snowpack at under 90 percent. “In this new year, still firmly gripped by the worst drought in our state’s history, we can not settle for this indifference and lose the progress we made in meeting conservation targets”.
However, DWR warns that while precipitation this water year is improved over last year, it does not mean California’s long drought is over.
The water content of the northern Sierra Nevada snowpack is 22.7 inches, 120 percent of average for the date.
“We’re at halftime”, water board chair Felicia Marcus said in an interview. They said they’re also open to considering larger adjustments later on for hotter inland areas such as the Coachella Valley.
Which leaves many wondering – if we do get all that rain Bell says is on its way, is it enough to get us out of the drought?
California saved 18 percent more water this past December than it did in 2013, which is good, but falls short of the overall 25 percent savings called for by the State Water Board.
Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. declared a drought State of Emergency on January 17, 2014 and directed state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for water shortages.
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“We look at this as an insurance policy, or as increased security in case the drought continues”, explained Max Gomberg, SWRCB climate and conservation manager.
