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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.