Reservoirs across California recently received good news only weeks after a late January snowpack update from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) sparked concern.
Why It Matters
Although a series of atmospheric rivers brought heavy snow to high-elevation areas in parts of northern and central California in November and December, Southern California had an unusually dry start to the winter season. The lack of precipitation fueled wildfires in the region in January and furthered the state’s challenges with drought.
California reservoirs depend on precipitation in the winter months, especially snow that falls in the Sierra Nevada mountains and then melts and runs into the reservoirs when temperatures warm in the spring.
What to Know
The DWR’s first snowpack update in January showed that the snowpack statewide was near normal for the time of year, although it was below average for the southern Sierra Nevada mountains. However, officials stressed that anything could happen up until April 1, when the snowpack typically begins to melt.
The state of California’s snowpack worsened through January, with another DWR snowpack survey showing the statewide snowpack average at only 65 percent on January 31. However, recent winter weather activity across much of the state during the first half of February helped those levels recover, according to a social media post from the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Sacramento, California, that was made earlier this week.
The post included a graphic showing snowfall amounts in the northern, central and southern Sierra Nevada mountains. According to the graphic, snowpack in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains is 122 percent of normal for this time of year. In the central Sierra Nevada mountains, the snowpack is 90 percent of normal for this time of year. The southern Sierra Nevada mountains still have the least amount of snow at 76 percent of normal, but statewide the snowpack is 95 percent of normal.
In early January, snowpack was at 108 percent of normal statewide. However, that number dropped to only 65 percent of normal during the DWR’s snowpack survey in late January.
The snowpack has since recovered to 95 percent of normal for mid-February, a significant uptick over the end of last month.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack provides around 30 percent of California’s water needs.
What People Are Saying
NWS Sacramento in a post on X: “Curious what Sierra snowpack looks like so far through mid-February? While not uniform along the extent, the statewide average of normal snowfall is sitting around 95% after the recent active weather period!”
DWR Director Karla Nemeth in a snow survey update published in late January: “Despite a good start to the snowpack in the Northern Sierra in November and December, we can look back as recently as 2013 and 2021 to show how quickly conditions can change for the drier. California missed out on critical snow-building storms in January which has pushed the state down below average for this time of year. While we are excited to see some storm activity in the coming days, sustained periods of no precipitation can dry the state out very quickly. For each day it’s not snowing or raining, we are not keeping up with what we need.”
What Happens Next
NWS meteorologist Katrina Hand, who works at the Sacramento office, told Newsweek that some light snow could fall in the Sierra Nevada mountains from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
Despite the improvement in snowpack in the first half of February, the second part of the month will bring above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation to all of California, the NWS Climate Prediction Center said.
The post California Reservoirs Get Good News Amid Snowpack Update appeared first on Newsweek.
