First Snow Survey of 2013 Shows Wet Conditions

Snow surveyors today reported that water content in California’s mountain snowpack

is well above average for the date.

Manual and electronic readings today record the snowpack’s statewide water content at 134 percent of average for this time of year. That is 49 percent of the average April 1 measurement, when the snowpack is normally at its peak before the spring melt.

The snowpack normally provides about a third of the water for California’s homes, farms and industries as it slowly melts into streams, reservoirs and aquifers in the spring and early summer.

 

“We are off to a good water supply start for the new year, but we have to remember that we have seen

wet conditions suddenly turn dry more than once,” said DWR spokesman Ted Thomas. “We know from experience that California is a drought-prone state, and that we must always practice conservation.”

 

Electronic readings indicate that the water content in the northern mountains is 133 percent of normal

for the date and 50 percent of the April 1 seasonal average. Electronic readings for the central Sierra

also show 133 percent of normal for the date and half the April 1 average. The numbers for the southern Sierra are 131 percent of average for the date and 44 percent of the April 1 average.

 

In addition to above average water content in the snowpack, early storms this season have replenished

California’s reservoirs.

Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s principal reservoir with a capacity of 3.5

million acre-feet, is at 71percent of capacity, 113 percent of average for the date. Shasta Lake

north of Redding, the federal Central Valley Project’s principal storage reservoir with a capacity of

4.5 million acre-feet, today is at 73 percent of capacity, 115 percent of normal for the date.

(An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, enough to cover one acre to a depth of one foot).

Electronic reservoir level readings are available on the Internet at:

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/products/rescond.pdf

 

Electronic snowpack readings may be found at:
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snow/DLYSWEQ

 

*Information taken from DWR Press Release January 2, 2013