This month’s snow survey showed a huge increase in the snowpack from January, but state water officials are reminding Californians that precipitation could stop suddenly. Of the last 10 water years, eight have been dry, one wet and one average, according to state climatologist Mike Anderson. Mikel Shybut (left), science policy fellow with the California Council on Science and Technology, helps Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, with the second snow survey of the 2017 season on February 2 at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada. The survey site is about 90 miles east of Sacramento off Highway 50 in El Dorado County. Photo by Dale Kolke / California Department of Water Resources The Department of Water Resources (DWR) manual snow survey on February 2 at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada range found a snow water equivalence of 28.1 inches, a significant increase since the January 3 survey, when just 6 inches was found there. Snow water equivalence is the depth of water that theoretically would result if the entire snowpack melted instantaneously, according to DWR. That measurement is more important than depth in evaluating the status of the snowpack. On average, the snowpack supplies [...]
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