February 3,2016-
Grapevine Gets A White Blanket
California snowpack is 114% of normal for the date the state has announced.
Its even better in the Tahoe area where a manual survey was held February 2. Department of Water Resources conducted its second manual snow survey of the winter February 2 at the Phillips snow course 90 miles east of Sacramento just off highway 50. Surveyors found the snowpack’s water content there much improved compared to the early-February survey last year.
Led by Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, the team found a snow water equivalent of 25.4 inches, which is 130 percent of the February average of 19.5 inches at Phillips since 1966. Last year, Gehrke recorded a water content of just 2.5 inches in the February survey.Both the depth and water content at Phillips today were the highest since 2005, when a depth of 77.1 inches and water content of 29.9 inches were recorded.
The latest figures show Northern California at 120% of normal for February 1 and 77% of April 1 average. The Central region stands at 116% of normal and 74% of April 1 average and the South is 106% of normal and 63% of April 1 average.
In our Tulare County reading area the upper Kaweah looks good today with the Giant Forest station already receiving 25 inches of precip so far this water year,more than we got all year last year and all year in 2014. On the upper Tule Quaking Aspen tells the same story with just over 24 inches of precip. Last week snow swept across middle California blanketing the Grapevine as seen in this photo.