An unusually warm and sunny January has left the snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevada much thinner than usual — 59% of the average for this time of year, state water officials announced Friday as they held their second snow survey of the season.
“We’re now probably in the middle of the wettest part of the year,” said Andy Reising, the California Department of Water’s ice survey manager. “We still have February and March, but every dry week we have will make it harder to achieve.”
The next two weeks are not expected to bring any major storms. A late rebound is still possible before the season peaks on April 1, Reising said, but “to have two weeks ahead of us that we know is unlikely to produce more snow and rain — that doesn’t look good.”
He spoke after he and other officials in snowshoes measured snow in a meadow at Phillips Station near South Lake Tahoe, where they conduct snow surveys between December and April. It was 23 inches deep.
There are 130 monitoring stations throughout the mountain range that provide electronic readings. The Northern Sierra is currently at 44% of average and the Southern Sierra at 79% of average.
Record warmth has left much of the western US with little snow this winter.
Precipitation falls more like rain than snow, especially at higher altitudes – a sign of global warming, which has been happening in recent years. pushing the snow lines up in the mountains.
California relies on the Sierra snowpack for about 30% of its water on average.
Despite the lack of snow, California has plenty of water this year, with good rain and major lakes at 124% of their normal levels after three years of delivering average or above average snow.
For the first time in 25 years, no part of California is currently experiencing drought, or even unusually dry conditions, according to the report. US Drought Monitor website.
It’s a very different situation in the Rocky Mountains, where severe and long-lasting droughts persist.
Snowpack in the upper Colorado River is at 62% of average for this time of year, one of the lowest in decades, according to federal data. That means more difficult times for the Colorado River, which is fed by snowmelt.
In the last half of the century, i Colorado River lost about 20% of its flow, and research shows climate change it has sustained a long period of very dry years.
The river supplies water to farms and cities in seven states, from Wyoming to California, and northern Mexico. Its reservoirs have decreased significantly as the drought continues and water consumption has outstripped the dwindling water supply.
The negotiators with the seven districts that depend on the river have been holding speeches trying to agree on a long-term plan to limit water use.
Bad snow could intensify a long drought in the Colorado River Basin, said Daniel Swain, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources climate scientist.
“It’s kind of a shockingly bad picture where almost every major western region is doing very poorly,” Swain said in a statement. live chat of the view of the snow in the west.
“This will probably get worse in the coming days.” Swain said. “Right now, it’s going to take a miracle in March and then others, across the region, to strengthen the snowpack.”
