Despite storms, snowpack is below average

California Department of Water Resources conducts first survey of the season. The state’s water supply will depend heavily on coming months, official says.

- BY HAYLEY SMITH

ENGINEERS Jacob Kollen, left, and Anthony Burdock conduct a snow survey.

(XAVIER MASCARENAS California Department of Water Resources)

California's snowpack remains below average despite the powerful atmospheric river storms that pounded the West Coast around Christmas, state officials announced Tuesday.

The Department of Water Resources' first snow survey of the season revealed that statewide snowpack is 71% of average for the date, compared with a 30-year baseline from 1990 to 2020. Last year, that number was 115% of average at the same time.

Snowpack is a key component of California's water supply, with the annual melt in the spring and summer feeding into rivers and reservoirs and helping to provide about about one-third of the water used for drinking, agriculture, nature and other needs.

"It's still pretty early for the water year and our winter season," said Angelique Fabbiani-Leon, a hydro-meteorologist with the department's snow surveys and water supply forecasting unit.

“The conditions in the coming months, especially January all the way through the end of March, are really going to be telling.”Fabbiani-Leon spoke from the state’s survey site at Phillips Station near South Lake Tahoe, where the snow depth was 24 inches with a snow water content of 5 inches — roughly half of average for the area.

However, she noted that just a week and a half ago, the survey site was bare ground — a marker of how quickly conditions can change in California. Last week's series of atmospheric rivers broke rainfall records and went a long way toward improving the state’s snowpack conditions, but the next three months will be crucial.