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First Mountain Snowpack Survey for 2013 Reveals “Well Above Average” Water Content

SACRAMENTO — The first mountain snowpack readings taken Jan. 2 by snow surveyors with the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and other agencies reveal water content “well above average for the date,” DWR officials stated Jan. 2 in a press release.
Manual and electronic readings recorded Jan. 2 show the California’s snowpack water content hovering at about 134% of average for this time of year. That is 49% of the average April 1 measurement, when the snowpack is typically at its peak before the spring melt.
“We are off to a good water supply start for the new year, but we have to remember that we have seen wet conditions suddenly turn dry more than once,” Ted Thomas, a spokesman for DWR said in a statement. “We know from experience that California is a drought-prone state, and that we must always practice conservation.”
Snowpack normally provides about a third of the water for California’s homes, farms and industries as it slowly melts into streams, reservoirs and aquifers in the spring and early summer.
Results of today’s manual readings of snowpack by DWR off Highway 50 near Echo Summit are as follows: Alpha location at 7,600 feet showed 56 inches of snow depth, 16 inches of water content and 122% of long term average; Phillips Station at 6,800 feet showed 48.6 inches of snow depth, 12.1 inches of water content and 101% of long term average; Lyons Creek at 6,700 feet showed 55.7 inches of snow depth, 12.9 inches of water content and 109% of long-term average. Tamarack Flat readings were not available.
Electronic readings indicate that water content in the northern mountains is 133% of normal for the date and 50% of the April 1 seasonal average. Electronic readings for the central Sierra also show 133% of normal for the date and half of the April 1 Average. The Southern Sierra revealed 131% of average for the date and 44% of the April 1 average.
DWR and cooperating agencies conduct snow surveys around the first of each month from January to May. Manual measurements supplement and check the accuracy of real-time readings from sensors throughout the state.
DWR currently estimates it will deliver 40% of the roughly 4 million acre-feet of State Water Project (SWP) water requested for this calendar year by the 29 public agencies that receive water from the project. That delivery estimate is expected to increase as more winter storms develop. The SWP final allocation was 80% in 2011, 50 % in 2010, 40% in 2009, 35% in 2008 and 60% in 2007.
In addition to above average water content in the snowpack, early winter storms have replenished California’s reservoirs. Lake Oroville in Butte County, the SWP’s principal reservoir ,is at 71% of capacity and 113% of average for this date.
Electronic reservoir level readings are available online here.
Electronic snowpack readings are available online here.

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