Snowpack Archives

Second Snow Survey To Measure California Water Supply

Officials will trek into the mountains on Thursday to measure California’s snowpack again, in the hopes that recent storms have added to the state’s water supply. The California Department of Water Resources will perform the second survey of the season in the Sierra Nevada. Winter snow provides drinking water for much of the state as it melts in the spring and summer and flows into reservoirs for storage. The Sierra snowpack was 67 percent of normal in this winter’s first manual measurement earlier this month. The amount of snow is measured monthly through the winter at more than 260 locations to help water managers plan for how much they can deliver to customers later in the year.

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California Snowpack At 100 Percent Of Average As January Ends, State Officials Say

The Department of Water Resources conducted California’s second manual snow survey of the year Thursday at Phillips Station, which offered some good news for the state. DWR water resource engineer John King announced that snow water content doubled since the start of the month at the survey site near Echo Summit. “The snow depth today is 50 inches and the snow-water equivalent is 18 inches, which results in 98 percent of average to date and 71 percent of the April 1 average at this location,” King said. “This is a significant increase since the last survey, where we had just measured 25.5 inches of depth and 9 inches of snow-water equivalent.”

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New Measurements Show Sierra Snow Levels At Long-Term Average. And That’s A Big Deal

January 31, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

New snow measurements to be taken Thursday are expected to confirm that snow levels in the Sierra Nevada are on par with the long-term average, thanks to a series of storms that thrashed California in January. Those results may sound pretty ho hum, but getting to average is a pretty big thing in today’s topsy turvy world of snow analysis, where the absence of pending disaster due to too little snow is something to celebrate.

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Why We Can’t Stop Talking About California’s Sierra Snowpack

January 31, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /KQED (San Francisco)by Peter Arcuni

It’s not just skiers who have been whipsawed this season between fear of another dry winter and delight over the epic January snowfall in the Sierra Nevada. Also paying close attention: water wonks. Why? Because melting Sierra snow provides somewhere between one-third and one-half of California’s water supply. What determines just how much water is derived from that snow is called the “snowpack.”

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California Water Outlook Improves After Recent Storms, California Farm Bureau Federation Reports

January 29, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Sierra Sun Timesby Christine Souza

Storms during the first three weeks of January brought seasonal rainfall and snowpack levels to average or more, increased reservoir levels and brought cautious optimism to California farmers, who hope to see improved water supplies in the coming year. After seeing the Sierra Nevada snowpack increase from 70 percent of average on Jan. 1 to 105 percent of average at the start of this week, farmers said they’re encouraged—but noted the winter still has a long way to go.

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Atmospheric River Boosted California Snowpack Well Above Average By Mid-January

January 22, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The Fresno Beeby Alyssa Hodenfield

Snowpack across California is about 110 percent of normal for this time of year, thanks in no small part to an atmospheric river that brought heavy snowstorms to the Sierra range, the state Department of Water Resources’ most recent data show. As of last Friday, the northern Sierra snowpack measured at 113 percent of normal. The central and south Sierra were each observed at 110 percent of normal, for a statewide average of 111 percent, according to DWR’s latest snow survey.

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He’s ‘Famous’ For Measuring California’s Snow. Now, He’s Retiring After 30 Years — Sort Of.

January 17, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Ezra David Romero

A simple web search will pull up nearly a million articles, videos and photos featuring Frank Gehrke. He’s no fashion icon like Kim Kardashian or a dogged politician like Gov. Jerry Brown. But he has broken a lot of news. Sometimes, it’s bad news, like California suffering yet another year of drought. That’s a realization he alluded to in 2014, when he measured the snowpack near Lake Tahoe.

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How Much Snow Did The Storm Bring To Southern California Mountains?

January 17, 2019/in Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee / Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.)by Laylan Connelly

At local mountains, where snowfall was plentiful at the start of the week, raindrops started falling from the sky Thursday. It’s not the best news for those planning on hitting the slopes, as the rain turns the snow to mush. But there’s a bright side to all this wet stuff: For lakes that have suffered from low levels in recent years, it means reservoirs are filling up. Around the state, snowpacks are near normal levels and local rain totals have surpassed what’s expected this time of year. And when the rainstorms move out and blue skies replace the clouds starting Friday, it could be a great weekend for a snowy holiday getaway.

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California Snowpack Surges After Slow Start. Will It Be Enough To Combat Years Of Drought?

January 13, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Visalia Times-Deltaby Joshua Yeager

California’s snowpack is surging after a series of storms hit the Sierras last week. More snow could hit California’s mountain ranges this week. “Last week’s storms have been nice and cold, coming from the Gulf of Alaska and putting some nice snow across the Sierra Nevadas,” said Chris Orrock, California Department of Water Resources spokesman. California began 2019 with lower-than-average snowpack measurements — just 67 percent of the year-to-date average. Recent storms pushed that total to 90 percent as of Friday.

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State’s Retiring Snow Guru Talks Snowpack Tech And California Water

January 7, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /KQED (San Francisco)by Craig Miller

Frank Gehrke says that back in Missouri, where he was raised, snow was “something to be plowed.” He would soon take a very different view. In December, Gehrke retired as chief snow surveyor for the California Department of Water Resources. He spent much of his 31 years with the department on skis and snowshoes, in remote corners of the Sierra Nevada, measuring the “frozen reservoir” that ultimately provides about a third of California’s water supply

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