Relief! There’s snow this time
Though Sierra Nevada snowpack is below average (67%), last year ‘there were just patches of snow’
Surveyors from the state’s Department of Water Resources trekked to the Sierra Nevada on Thursday to measure snowpack and found something that was largely absent last January: Snow.
Unlike the 2018 January snowpack survey, there actually was white stuff to measure Thursday at Phillips Station near Lake Tahoe. And while the snowpack across the Sierra Nevada is currently at 67 percent of its historic total for this time of year, that number should receive a significant boost this weekend from a storm that could drop as much as 1 foot to almost 3 feet of new snow.
Thursday, the state conducted this winter’s first manual survey and measured snow depth at Phillips Station at 25.5 inches, or 80 percent of aver-
age for this time of year at that specific location. The snow water content at Phillips Station was measured at 9 inches; state water experts said if all the snow there were to be melted, it would create 9 inches of standing water.
“While these results are below average, they are a stark contrast to where we were last year, where there were just patches of snow,” said John King, a water resources engineer with the Department of Water Resources Snow Survey Section. “The season is still early. Anything is possible from now until May.”
Last January there were just scattered patches of snow at the same Phillips Station site, which measured a paltry 0.3 inch.
State water officials factor in readings at 260 stations across the Sierra Nevada — the source of nearly one- third of California’s water — when determining statewide snowpack. At this time last year, the statewide snowpack was 28 percent of normal.
A storm system sitting over the Pacific Ocean is expected to spread across Northern California on Saturday and blanket the Sierra with as much as 2 feet of new snow, according to Brendon Rubin- Oster, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in Sacramento.
With snow levels expected to drop to 3,500 feet, the weather service issued a winter storm watch from 5 a.m. Saturday through noon Sunday. The weather service is warning that motorists should carry chains along Highway 50 and Interstate 80.“It’s a rather cold Pacific system with snow levels rather low,” said RubinOster, who added that the pass levels of Highway 50 and Interstate 80 could receive up to 2 feet of snow by Sunday night and nearly 3 feet at the highest elevations. Rubin- Oster added advice for anyone heading up to the Sierra Nevada for a ski weekend.
“Leave as early as possible Saturday morning, if not Friday,” he said.
The weather service also is tracking storm systems that could bring more precipitation next week.
“We’re below average but there’s still opportunity,” California state climatologist Michael Anderson said. “We’re only through the first of our three wettest months of the season. December, January and February are when we typically accumulate half our annual precipitation.”
Rainfall totals in the Bay Area are running about 35 percent below normal for this time of year but should receive a boost with a weekend storm expected to drench the region with one-half to 1 inch of precipitation.