Amid a brief pause in the onslaught of winter storms slamming into California, state water officials trudged through fresh snow at Echo Summit, south of Lake Tahoe, on Tuesday to confirm what more than a hundred sensors across the Sierra already show: the California Sierra snowpack is at a decade high for this time of year.
“Our snowpack is off to one of its best starts in the past 40 years,” said Sean de Guzman, manager of the California Department of Water Resources’ monthly snow surveys, at news conference on Echo Summit.
And the bounty will continue to grow as several feet of snow is expected to hit parts of the mountain range in the coming days, a welcome start to winter as California struggles through a third year of drought. The Golden State relies on melting snowpack each spring for about a third of its water supply.
On Tuesday across the Sierra, California’s snowpack was at a staggering 175% above normal for this time of year. At Echo Summit, the snowpack measurement came in a shade higher, at 177% of average. But sky-high early snowpack does not guarantee that the Golden State will escape the drought. Last year and in 2013, above average snowpack at the start of the New Year did not translate into end of season highs. In both years California’s snowpack ended in a significant deficit, prolonging drought conditions.
And although those gathering on the 7,000 foot-high summit were elated about the record-breaking snow haul, reservoirs at lower elevations tell a different story. Many of California’s biggest reservoirs are significantly below average for this time of year, despite last week’s storm.
A Bay Area News Group analysis of the state’s biggest reservoirs found that water storage levels yesterday were 27% lower than the 20-year average for that date. And that analysis includes 11 years of drought.
The deficit is being fueled by water shortages at some of Northern California’s biggest reservoirs. The Shasta Reservoir is at 34% total capacity, which is only 57% of the historical average. The Oroville Reservoir is faring slightly better, at 38% of total capacity which is still only 72% of the historical average.
“Frankly, I’m more interested in the precipitation than the snowpack because the reservoirs are so empty down below,” said Jay Lund, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Davis. “Last year at this time, we’d had more precipitation.”
That's right, even after last week’s downpour, there has been less precipitation statewide this year compared to last year. And last year the state ended the rainy season with a major water deficit despite an early-season deluge.
If the Golden State gets enough precipitation to lessen drought conditions, it can lead to another problem, which we are seeing this week — floods.
“Really worst case scenario is that this pattern just keeps going… where it just becomes an unrelenting series of storms hammering, and then that’s where we really start worrying about how much water is sitting in the landscape,” said Michael Anderson, state climatologist with California Department of Water Resources, at a press conference Tuesday. “Watch that weather forecast because it’s going to be key to how things play out next.”
