Download High in the Sierra Nevada, snow-capped mountains provide more

High in the Sierra Nevada, snow-capped mountains provide more than
just a beautiful winter landscape. They hold the snow pack that serves as
California’s largest and most important water storage reservoir.
California relies on the Sierra snowpack for a major part of its annual
water storage. Traditionally, the snow melts gradually over the spring
months, and whatever water is not absorbed into the ground flows into
the valleys below as runoff in creeks and rivers. That runoff is then stored
in man-made reservoirs and groundwater basins for use year-round by
communities, farms and businesses.
The Sierra Nevada Region plays a critical role in California’s water supply
and hydrological system. More than 60 percent of California’s developed
water supply originates in the Sierra Nevada serving end users throughout
the State. Snowpack in the Sierra region provides a natural form of water
storage, and Sierra forests and meadows play a role in ensuring water
quality and reliability.
Furthermore, up to 50 percent of the flow into the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta (Delta) comes from the Sierra. The Delta is the hub of the
State of California's water system, providing water to more than 25
million Californians and three million acres of agricultural land. Together,
these two regions act as California’s natural water infrastructure, and are
critical pieces of a complex system that provides clean, reliable water for
the state.
The snowpack is an important component of California’s water supply
because the melting of Sierra Nevada snowpack in late spring and early
summer fills reservoirs in advance of the dry summer and fall months.
This snowpack normally stores 15 million acre-feet of water —that’s more
water than California cities used in 2010—and provides one-third of the
water used by cities and farms each year. The April snow survey is
particularly important because it generally represents when snowpack is at
its peak—what we have at the beginning of April typically is all we’re
going to get.
The snowpack measured so far this year has set records for how scarce it
has been. At the beginning of February, the snowpack was only 10
percent of the average for that time of the year (the lowest reading since
World War II). Significant precipitation during February improved
snowpack conditions, but they still represented only 20 percent of the
average. This year’s April snow survey will still rank far below normal.
YEAR’S FINAL SNOW SURVEY COMES UP DRY
3-YEAR DROUGHT RETAINS GRIP AS SUMMER APPROACHES
May 1, 2014 – California Department of Water Resources
April’s final snow survey of the year found more bare ground than snow
as California faces another long, hot summer after a near-record dry
winter. Today’s manual and electronic readings recorded the statewide
snowpack’s water content (which normally provides about a third of the
water for California’s farms and cities) at a mere18 percent of average for
the date.
Just as telling was the April 1 snow survey that found water content at
only 32 percent of average at the time of year it normally is at its peak
before it begins to melt into streams and reservoirs with warming
weather. Coupled with half our normal rainfall and low reservoir storage,
our practically nonexistent snowpack reinforces the message that we need
to save every drop we can just to meet basic needs.
Most
dramatically,
electronic readings show
a dismal 7 percent of
average water content in
the
northern
Sierra
snowpack that helps fill
the
state’s
major
reservoirs
which
currently are only half
full.
Electronic water content
readings for the central
and southern Sierra are
24 and 18 percent of
normal, respectively.