Recent El Niño storms have increased the Sierra Nevada snowpack to 115 percent of normal, more than drought-stricken California has had in five years, officials said Tuesday. The electronic reading by the State Department of Water Resources was the highest since it reached 129 percent in 2011.

 

The Sierra snowpack contributes nearly one-third of California’s water when it melts in the spring. However, officials say the snowpack would have to be at 150 percent of normal by April 1 to ease the four-year drought. Key reservoirs are beginning to rise from the early winter storms but remain low. Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s largest reservoir, is at 60 percent of its historical average for this time of year.