The parade of storms that triggered deadly floods in California last week provided a needed boost to the state’s snowpack, a major source of drinking water that has shriveled with climate change and drought.
(Bloomberg) — The parade of storms that triggered deadly floods in California last week provided a needed boost to the state’s snowpack, a major source of drinking water that has shriveled with climate change and drought.
In fact, the state’s mountain snowpack is off to one of its best starts in the last 40 years, according to the California Department of Water Resources, which conducted a survey of its depth Tuesday.
Measurements at Phillips Station, an alpine field ringed by high peaks near Lake Tahoe, found 55.5 inches (141 centimeters) of snow, with a water content of 17.5 inches. That’s 177% of the average for that location at this point in the season, according to the water agency. More telling: that depth is about 72% of the key April measurement officials use to allocate water resources.
But the bumper early-winter snowpack doesn’t necessarily signal an end to the state’s devastating years-long drought. A year ago at this time, the snowpack at Phillips Station was even deeper, reaching 202% of average water content. Then the state suffered its driest January, February and March on record, leaving just patches of snow in an otherwise grassy field.
“We’re cautiously optimistic at this point, but we all know what can happen if the pattern turns dry,” said Sean de Guzman, a snow survey manager for the California Department of Water Resources.
Read: California braces for next deluge as Pacific storms line up
The state’s two largest reservoirs remain just over one-third full even after after last week’s drenching atmospheric river, which closed roads, triggered rock slides and breached levees. A colder band of heavy storms poised to strike California this week should add to its snowpack, de Guzman said.
The Sierra snowpack represents the single largest source of water in California, which typically gets little rain for half of the year. In the past, slowly melting snows in the summer have carried the state through its annual dry season. But the snowpack has shrunk with drought and climate change, forcing farms and cities to slash water usage.
Snowpack “is our ‘bank account’ for the rest of the year,” said Cannon Michael, a sixth-generation farmer and chief executive officer of Bowles Farming Co.
–With assistance from Brian K. Sullivan and Kim Chipman.
(Adds farmer quote in final paragraph.)
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