Survey finds more snow this year, but water content is still low

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Department of Water Resources conducted the first manual snow survey of the winter on Tuesday, about 90 miles east of Sacramento. They said the water equivalent was about 33 percent of average.

At the snow survey plot, along Highway 50 near Echo Summit, the snow was 21.3 inches deep, with a water equivalent of about 4 inches according to the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program. However, they also said 105 electronic sensors spread throughout the Sierra are reporting the average water content is 50 percent of normal for this time of year.

Tuesday's electronic readings indicate that water content in the northern mountains is 57 percent of normal for the date and 20 percent of the average on April 1, when the snowpack normally is at its peak before the spring melt. Electronic readings in the central Sierra show 45 percent of normal for the date and 16 percent of the April 1 average. The numbers for the southern Sierra are 48 percent of average for the date and 15 percent of the April 1 average.

They said last year at this time, the water content in the snow was about 20 percent of average -- which tied with 2012 as the driest readings on record.

DWR Director Mark Cowin said of today's survey results: "Although this year's survey shows a deeper snowpack than last year, California needs much more rain and snow than we've experienced over the past two years to end the drought in 2015. The department encourages Californians to continue their water conservation practices."

In the report, Corwin also stated that California's surface and groundwater reservoirs have been severely depleted during the drought -- now in its fourth year. California's snowpack supplies about a third of the water needed by the state as it melts in the late spring and summer.