First California Snow Survey Of 2014 Is Bleak
January 6, 2014 As California’s dry weather pushes into the new year, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced Friday that its first snow survey of the winter found more bare ground than snow.
Manual and electronic readings record the snowpack’s statewide water content at about 20% of average for this time of year. That is a mere 7% of the average April 1 measurement, when the snowpack normally is at its peak before melting into streams and reservoirs to provide a third of the water used by California’s cities and farms.
“While we hope conditions improve, we are fully mobilized to streamline water transfers and take every action possible to ease the effects of dry weather on farms, homes, and businesses as we face a possible third consecutive dry year,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “And every Californian can help by making water conservation a daily habit.”
The last time California’s statewide snowpack was this dry was in 2012 when it also was 20% of the historical average. The readings today and in 2012 are the driest on record.
The situation looks particularly dire on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, normally one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. The general manager of Westlands Water District said that over the past several months, with reservoirs at near record low levels, Westlands has braced its growers for an initial zero allocation.
“Friday’s announcement makes that prediction a virtual certainty. Without an adequate water supply, an estimated 200,000 acres of prime agriculture land (which equates to 300 square miles of barren dirt) will remain unplanted on the west side of Fresno County,” said Tom Birmingham. “But it is not just the farmers that will suffer; farmworkers, communities, businesses, and California consumers will feel the full impact of the drought and the regulatory failures.”
DWR said Friday’s electronic readings indicate that water content in the northern mountains is 11% of normal for the date and 4% of the April 1 average. Electronic readings in the central Sierra show 21% of normal for the date and 8% of the April 1 average. The numbers for the southern Sierra are 30% of average for the date and 10% of the April 1 average.
In addition to the sparse snowpack, many areas of California ended calendar year 2013 with the lowest rainfall amounts on record. Normally one of California’s wettest spots with an average annual rainfall of nearly 100 inches, Gasquet Ranger Station in Del Norte County ended the year with only 43.46 inches. Sacramento, which normally gets about 18 inches, ended up with 5.74 inches of precipitation. And downtown Los Angeles, which since 1906 has averaged 14.74 inches of rain, ended the year with 3.4 inches, beating the previous low of 4.08 inches recorded in 1953.
DWR and cooperating agencies conduct manual snow surveys around the first of the month from January to May. The manual measurements supplement and check the accuracy of real-time electronic readings.
Source: Department of Water Resources; Westlands Water District
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