First Survey Shows Early Storms Helped Sierra Snowpack

PHILLIPS, CA -- It's a new day and a new winter for California -- and climate watchers would say a new age.

Like baseball teams working with a clean slate come spring training, the state's Department of Water Resources launched the winter season Thursday with the first snow survey of the year in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. DWR came up with 9 inches of water content in 25.5 inches of snow depth measured on foot at the intersection of Highway 50 and the base of the Sierra at Tahoe Road. The open field, which during drought years had no snow coverage at over 7,000 feet, represents one in more than 260 snow courses where DWR officials and engineers measure the snowpack.

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown showed up for one of the four drought years to a field of grass with dirt to measure and a mandate for the state to conserve water.

The first all-too-important report for how much water farmers and consumers will be allocated this year averaged out as 80 percent to date at midday Thursday. The over 2 feet of snow equates to 36 percent of average in contrast to measurements taken on April 1, the end of the snow year.

As low as that sounds, it was better than DWR spokesman Chris Orrock expected.

"While (the 80 percent) is below average, it's in stark contrast to where we were last year, and the season is still early. Anything is possible from now until May," DWR's snow survey engineer John King said, while standing in the field. "We're a third of the way there, and when you look at it, climate change can make California so variable. One or two atmospheric rivers can really increase the snowpack at any time."

A new team replaces Frank Gehrke, a mainstay in the snow survey program who retired last year after decades with the division. DWR has conducted the survey since 1964. It manually performs five per winter.

This year so far, the statewide Sierra snowpack overall is 67 percent of average among its 41 electronic sensors.

Water from the Sierra Nevada trickles down to be funneled to regions through the Central Valley and State Water projects.

While the snowpack provides about a third of the state's water needs, over half the allocations from the Sierra snowmelt is responsible for the Santa Clara Valley Water District's supply. The deluge from an unprecedented winter two years ago has allowed the district to catch up "to pre-drought levels," district spokesman Marty Grimes told Patch.

"We're still benefiting from that," Grimes said.

The Sierra Nevada snowmelt ends up in the San Luis Reservoir off Highway 152, where the Pacheco Pump Station cranks it out to the South Bay through treatment plants.

The water district has remained vigilant on replenishing its ground water supply and consistently asking water customers to conserve at least 20 percent of their use -- because simply put, you never know what the future brings.

"We're staying the course. We live in an arid area. We're always encouraged when we have 80 percent, but we're still going to conserve by 20 percent," water district board Chairman Richard Santos told Patch. "And we hope (the moisture) continues in increments."

Santos leads by example in a community he lauds as being responsible when it comes to wasting little of the "precious" resource.

Santos admitted to not only barking at those who waste water, but he's installed a system on his property to irrigate his 5 acres. He encourages others to do the same because the climate plays give and take with California residents.

The variability of California weather year after year has many water experts including climatologists, farmers, government officials and other stakeholders scratching their heads. Humans have just scratched the surface of understanding what's in store for this arid state in the midst of global warming. This cautious optimism is despite this year's ever-increasingly building El Nino, a tropical weather phenomenon that originates off the western shores of South America. It usually bodes well for the San Francisco Bay Area across to the Central Valley, onto Lake Tahoe and down to Southern California.

State climatologist Mike Anderson, who was also at the survey, told the gathering that a warmer Earth since 2013 and tropical conditions like El Nino will bring more storms as Mother Nature rears its unpredictable side to topsy turvy winter months.

Last year churned out a less-than-average snowpack but not devastating. The year before brought record rainfall that followed four years of drought -- a trend of extremes climatologists warned residents of the planet would see more of.

"We expect this pattern to continue. With global warming, we'll continue to see snow levels slowly rise, and with that, (the need for more) water management," he said.

DWR has a number of programs it will be testing in the coming years to help water officials adapt to the changing climate that can make or break California water consumers. About two thirds of California's annual rainfall occurs from December through March.

The next snow survey in the Sierra Nevada will be slated in February.

--Images courtesy of Kathryn Reed; Sue Wood, Patch; California Department of Water Resources; and Santa Clara Valley Water District