Statewide snowpack lags below average

"Although the storms we saw in mid-February were some of the coldest and best snow-producing storms we have seen since 2023, they were not enough to get us back to average conditions," Andy Reising, manager of the Department of Water Resource's Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit, said.

The snowpack is in a little better shape than it was last month, when officials measured it at 56% of average statewide, but it still lags behind the measurement of about 85% of average late in February 2025.

"A month ago, we were standing here in the midst of a long dry stretch, you may remember, with unseasonably warm temperatures and very dry forecasts. Today, we can observe the results of what that dry stretch means for our snowpack," Reising said, who made the announcement from the unincorporated El Dorado County community of Phillips Station.

Reising and his team take manual samples from that location four or five times a year and those measurements are combined with more than 260 others from up and down the Sierra Nevada to paint a statistical picture of the state's snowpack, which typically accounts for about 30% of California's annual water supply.

This year, the totals are lagging below average following a slow start to the winter season and an extremely dry January.

And while February's first storm was cold enough to produce a nice snowpack, it was followed by a second, warmer storm system that dropped rain instead of snow.

"It rained on top of the snow, melted a lot of it away," Reising said.

While reservoir levels remain healthy across the state, there is only one month to go until the typical April 1 peak to the snow season and there doesn't seem to be much precipitation on the way.

"I specifically recall back in 2006, we had a very big Easter snowstorm, it snowed 6 feet in the middle of April," he said. "And so we can still have those, but we can't count on them."

The next snowpack survey is scheduled for April 1.