Skiers Having Patience Tested by Lame Snowpack

Hey, Novato, are you hoping to make a ski trip anytime soon? Keep those plans on hold. You don’t want to get up there and scrape rocks.

California's mountain snowpack is among the driest on record for Jan. 3, the California Department of Water Resources said Tuesday. Manual and electronic readings determined the snowpack's statewide water content is 19 percent of the Jan. 3 average and only seven percent of the average April 1 measurement when the snowpack is normally at its peak before the spring melt.

Readings were taken at four locations at elevations between 6,500 and 7,600 feet near Echo Summit in the Sierra. The snow depth was zero at the 7,600-foot Alpha station and 7.1 inches at 6,700-foot Lyons Creek.

Electronic readings indicate the water content in the northern mountains is 21 percent of normal for Jan. 3 and 8 percent of the April 1 seasonal average, according to the DWR.

Water content in the central Sierra is 13 percent of normal for Jan. 3 and five percent of the April 1 average.

The mountain snow that melts into reservoirs, streams and aquifers in the spring and summer provide approximately one-third of the water for the state's households, farms and industries. Novato gets about 80 percent of its water from Russian River in Sonoma County and about 20 percent from Stafford Lake, just west of Novato.

"Fortunately, we have most of winter ahead of us, and our reservoir storage is good," Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin said.

State water managers said they are cautiously optimistic about this year's water supply. On Wednesday, the Department of Water Resources said the snowpack water content statewide at the end of an unusually dry December is only 24 percent of normal for that date. On Dec. 27, 2010, the statewide snowpack water content was 202 percent of average.

"Thanks to good reservoir storage left over from last winter's storms, we anticipate an adequate water supply next summer," Cowin said.

Last week, Cowin said, "Our initial estimate is that we'll be able to deliver 60 percent of the slightly more than 4 million acre-feet of water requested from the State Water Project, and we hope to increase the percentage as winter storms
develop.”

An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, enough to cover one acre to a depth of one foot.
The snowpack surveys are conducted on the first of the month from January to May.

The manual surveys supplement and check the accuracy of real-time electronic readings from sensors in the state.

— Bay City News Service