March Provided A Boost, But This Year's California Snowpack Just 52% Of Historic Average
Californians may collectively be breathing a sigh of relief, but not elation, this week, after the state’s latest snowpack reading. A wet and cold March saved California from a near record-low snowpack, but it proved too little too late to bring a full recovery. And worse, climate scientists say we should start getting used to these low snowpack years.
How much water content the snow holds in the Sierra Nevada mountains is crucial to the state’s water supply, and snowpack readings at the start of April – usually the peak accumulation of the season – are a key indicator of the winter’s bounty (or lack of).
As of April 3, the snow-water equivalent (how much water content is in the snow), was 52 percent of the long-term average statewide. And in the northern part of the Sierra Nevada, which drains into the state’s two biggest reservoirs, it was only 41 percent of average.
It’s not great, but it’s a vast improvement from the outlook just over a month ago when the snowpack was near the lowest recorded. “At the end of February things were not looking so great, things were extremely dry throughout the state,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at University of California, Los Angeles’ Center for Climate Science. “The whole winter had been very warm, in some place the warmest on record.”
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https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2018/04/04/californias-nearly-dismal-snow-year-a-harbinger-of-things-to-come
