![]() ![]() “Any rain and snow we get is welcome,” said Hannah Chandler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. January had just one major storm.Īs a result, the storms in March are like the bank deposits of a middle-aged worker who didn’t save enough, and is now trying to salvage the highest balance possible as retirement draws closer with every passing day. Those two months were so warm and dry that they left the state in a deep winter water deficit. ![]() This winter got off to a good start with a wet November, but then there was virtually no snow in December and February. ![]() “To get to an average year, we’ll need another three big storms like this one.”ĪBOVE: Read more about why the new Sierra snow is not a “March Miracle” yet, alien signals may already have landed, but we missed them and tenant-sexual harassment might be more common than we know. “We’ve gone from an extremely dry situation to a below-average situation,” said Cortés. ![]() During 1991’s Miracle March, the same eight stations received three times that much, or 17.94 inches of precipitation. By comparison, the historic average for March is 7.6 inches. Through Wednesday, those stations had received 6.2 inches of precipitation - rain and water content in snow - this month. “By all standards we’re looking at a below-average year,” Rizzardo said, “but the reservoirs are in good shape, so water supply-wise, I think we’re OK.”Īnother measure is eight key weather stations located between Lake Tahoe and Mount Shasta that sit above watersheds that feed many of the state’s largest reservoirs, like Shasta, Oroville and Folsom, the backbone of California’s water system. Luckily, last winter’s monster storms, which ended the five-year drought, filled many of California’s reservoirs. It’s realistic to think we could end the season with 60 to 70 percent of normal.” We’ll take as much as we can get in the next two weeks,” said Dave Rizzardo, chief of snow surveys and water supply forecasting for the state Department of Water Resources. “Overall it’s turning wet, but it’s been a dry winter. “These storms are really helping and are positive. That should move the seasonal total to about 14 or 15 inches, or about 50 percent of the historic average for this time of year. The storms blanketing the mountains now will help get California closer to that historic average, bringing in about another 3 inches of water content, the National Weather Service estimates. Fernando Cori digs out his families buried cars on Donner Pass Road near Donner Summit after the first in a series of storms dumped about a foot of snow in the Sierras and about 5 inches around Lake Tahoe Wednesday March 14, 2018. Scott Sady, special to the Mercury News The historic average for April 1, however, is 30 inches. That’s a jump from about 4.6 inches of total water content up to 10.9 inches. The Sierra Nevada snow pack increased from an alarmingly low 19 percent of normal three weeks ago to 40 percent of normal on Wednesday. So when researchers or weather forecasters on TV talk about the snow pack, they’re really talking about the “snow water content,” or the amount of water that would come out of the Sierra snow if it were all melted at once. In other words, California still needs lots more snow.ĭense, wet snow has more water in it than light, fluffy snow. But even taking into account this storm and a big one two weeks ago, the Sierra Nevada snow pack - the source of nearly one-third of California’s water supply - still is only about half of normal for this winter season, with this month’s totals measuring just half of the 1991 miracle month’s final tally. Ski resorts are crowing over a major snowstorm that began pounding the Sierra Nevada late Thursday, with forecasters warning of white-out conditions, road closures and up to five feet of new snow at the highest elevations by Saturday morning.Īfter a dismally dry start to California’s winter, some observers have even gone so far as to tout this month’s bounty of storms as reminiscent of the “March Miracle,” the famous, stormy March 1991 that launched the beginning of the end of the state’s stubborn 1987-1992 drought.īut is this March another miracle? Not yet, say experts.Įvery storm helps improve the state’s summer water picture, scientists and state water planners said Thursday. Click here if you are having trouble viewing this gallery on a mobile device ![]()
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