Early winter storms are bringing promising signs for high snow levels in the Sierra Nevada, according to the California Department of Water Resources’ first snow survey of the season.
The survey was conducted Thursday at Phillips Station near South Lake Tahoe, which is one of the 260 locations the department surveys numerous times during the year.
The results concluded the area has a snow depth of 78.5 inches and a water content of 20 inches, according to Sean de Guzman, manager of DWR’s Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit.
He said these numbers are 202 percent of normal for the time of year and 82 percent of the April 1 survey at the location. The statewide snowpack is at 160 percent of average.
De Guzman said determining a snowpack’s water content, which is the amount of liquid the snow would produce if it melted at once, is essential to predict water supply forecasts. One-third of California’s water annually comes from snowpack alone.
He also said October’s showers, though too warm to produce snow, did an excellent job saturating the region’s extremely dry soils to produce more water runoff potential in this year’s snowfall.
“It has been a great start with those record rainfalls in late October,” de Guzman said at the survey’s press conference. “With all that rain, it really just primed all of our watersheds so that any type of future rain or snow would be able to run off, whereas last year, all those soils were so dry, where a lot of that got sucked into the ground before it actually made it to our reservoir.”
De Guzman said these preliminary numbers are not an indication that California is in the clear for water supplies this year — most reservoirs still have below-average water levels and groundwater supplies are still recovering.
“We still have a long way to go for our wet season, and we need more and more of these storms to keep coming through,” de Guzman said.
2013’s water year had an eerily similar head start in snow levels before New Year’s, he said. Once the spigot shut off, 2013 turned into the driest year on record.
Conversely, snowpack in 2020 was about 10 times larger than the levels in the drought years of 1977 and 2015, yet it produced the same amount of runoff due to bone-dry soils.
“It’s really a wake-up call. It really tells us that climate change is here, and that is really impacting our watersheds, as well as our snowpack,” he said.
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“It’s really a wake-up call. It really tells us that climate change is here, and that is really impacting our watersheds, as well as our snowpack,” he said.” — Sean De Guzman, Cal State Sacramento graduate
Like, really?
Like, really?
He must be one of the ones who didn’t have to pass any tests.
Let me get this straight, we have saturated soil (meaning most all snow and future rain will go towards the California water supply) and an inordinately large supply of snow (which is a third of California’s water supply), while we’re still early in our wet season; and all of this is due to climate change? Well hey, let’s try to increase this climate change then, cause it sounds great for our water supply!
Since time began, there have been numerous ice ages. For those who don’t know what they are, it’s when the earth cools down for a while and then it warms up again. That is climate change. This happened way before man started using tractors or motor vehicles.
It won’t stop the normal suspects, EBMUD and CC.Water from raising rates, after all what does having water in Reservoirs have to do with bloated Pension Plans
You are correct!!
A 2003 study funded by the Pentagon predicted a mini ice age not global warming. I think the global warming thing may be from an earlier study also funded by the Pentagon. They don’t fund these studies to kindly help out civilization but to know where to put military bases. 😄
Depressing doom and gloomers. I don’t buy it!
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Climate is cyclical so don’t get your panties in a wad.
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Wait til the Earth tilts one-half degree or more about its current axis like it did before…. I wonder how the liberals and environmentalists will propose how to prevent that!
They’ll send Atlas a complaint letter.
I keep forgetting is it global warming if there is too much snow or not enough snow.
interesting site showing annual snowfall and snow pack from 1879 to 2015 at Donner Summit. I like to look at these data for annual trends, etc. The article mentioned the snowfall from drought years of 2003 and 1977, so I wanted to look, and looks like same levels (drought) occurred in 1881, 1885 and 1924.
http://www.thestormking.com/Weather/Sierra_Snowfall/sierra_snowfall.html
Hmm, . . . so if it’s bad news it’s “climate change”,
but if it’s good news it’s also . . . “climate change”?
Are there any bridges for sale ? ?
Remove the profit motives from “climate change” and “global warming” and the topic would cease to exist.
Really hope people start seeing the game afoot here. It doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, they will manipulate you into thinking climate change is a problem. It’s been done for hundreds of years to keep you in fear and control you. I can’t even believe it still works when all these fools keep buying up ocean front mansions laughing all the way to the bank. al gore played a whole generation. zuckerberg just bought 1200 acres on the coast of Hawaii. Polar bears don’t drowned, they float.
All the rain and snow don’t matter, with no additional storage for it, all goes out to sea.
Someone tell that idiot that there’s an underwater forest in Fallen Leaf Lake…and why is that? Because water levels had a massive drop in the Tahoe area during a mega-drought about a THOUSAND YEARS AGO. Trees then grew in the newly-exposed soil, then were flooded a few hundred years later as waters levels came back up. I could be wrong but pretty sure there were no factories, SUVs, or homes with a/c back then.
Sorry to say but China Virus is child’s play compared to what these demons have in store for the “climate crisis”…you think the EPA is out of control now? Just wait and see how much more powerful and tyrannical they will be in implementing/enforcing “rules and mandates”.
The cold snap may be the result of geoengineering. Check out this documentary “The Dimming” which lays how some misguided science is messing with our natural climate change and making things worse.
https://youtu.be/rf78rEAJvhY
What about those poor Polar Bears on TV standing on those small ice islands? It’s all our fault and they need our help.
OK Wiz….I’ll buy the water wings if you’ll put them on the bears.
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