On Tuesday, state water officials trudged into the Sierra Nevada for the first snowpack survey of 2017. Snowpack levels are crucial indicators of whether California will have enough water after the winter, as the melting snow flows into the state’s reservoirs. The reading at Phillips Station, near Lake Tahoe, however, is a largely ceremonial exercise, attracting attention in part for its visual interest. (See photos below.) After dipping poles into the snow, surveyors said the snowpack there was at roughly half the historical average.

The multi-day siege of flooding rain and Sierra snow has begun in California, which may eventually prove to be too much of a good thing for residents still thirsting for relief from a five-year drought. Several landslides were reported in parts of northern California Tuesday night and early Wednesday, particularly in Santa Cruz County. Up to 2 feet of water was reported near downtown Yountville, and two right lanes of the 101 freeway in downtown San Francisco were flooded by a couple feet of water.