California snowpack gets good news

A warm storm has soaked the Sierra Nevada, with rain seeping into snow and freezing into ice, pushing California’s median snow water equivalent up by 5 percent since Monday, according to a report.

Why It Matters

The snow water equivalent, or SWE, indicates how much water is stored in the snowpack that will feed rivers and reservoirs as temperatures rise, making it a crucial measure for California’s water supply planning.

What To Know

Rain over recent days filtered into the Sierra’s snowpack and refroze, raising the statewide median SWE from 70 percent on Monday to 75 percent by Wednesday, according to University of California Berkeley monitoring, reported this week by SFGATE.

Despite the improvement, California’s snowpack sits at 61 percent of average peak, according to official figures. SFGATE reported on Wednesday the Southern Sierra at 95 percent of normal, the Central Sierra at 74 percent, and the Northern Sierra at 54 percent.

The jump comes after back-to-back winter storms hit the Golden State last week, with some of California’s reservoirs seeing levels rise amid widespread precipitation.

“Headlines may focus on the intensity of a winter storm, but once the clouds clear, the bigger picture comes into focus,” the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) said in a February 18 social media post. “This system delivered valuable rain and Sierra snowfall that will help rebuild snowpack and strengthen California’s water supply.

Statewide precipitation since October has averaged roughly 18 inches, or about 116 percent of normal, indicating a healthier rain picture compared to the snowpack, SFGATE noted.

What People Are Saying

Andrew Schwartz, director of UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory told SFGATE: “SWE is the most important metric for all of our water resources…It’s the metric that we deal with the most and the one that the entirety of the snow research and operations community is working to get right. So, seeing an increase in SWE like that, even if it’s from midwinter rain, is a great thing because that means we have more water stored in the snowpack moving forward.”

What Happens Next

Separately, Newsweek reported last week that developing El Niño conditions could steer more storms toward the Colorado River Basin in the months ahead, offering cautious optimism for Lake Mead inflows amid long-term shortages.

“The trends support El Niño developing late this spring to early this summer,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Chad Merrill told Newsweek, noting any rain boost would be a step forward, but not a cure for drought.