The
California Department of Water Resources will conduct the season's first field
survey of the Sierra Nevada snowpack today.
Automated gauges show recent storms boosted the water content of the snowpack to 78 percent of average to date.
"The storms of the last two weeks haven't even brought this season up to normal, much less made up for the last two years of deficit," said DWR Senior Meteorologist Elissa Lynn. "We've really got to keep it going."
Southern reaches of the Sierra show 98 percent of normal water content in the snowpack as of Monday, according to automated gauges, with the central and northern Sierra at 81 percent and 58 percent of normal, respectively.
There are 130 automated snow sensors and the state conducts manual snow surveys – considered more accurate – at 215 sites through May 1.
Fifteen manual surveys are expected to be done today, including one along Highway 50 near Echo Summit.
