San Francisco, the Gold Gate City, is suffering from a deficit from last year’s dry season and this year’s slow start. The atmospheric river swept through California last week. It soaked the valleys with much-needed rain and piled up huge amounts of snow in the mountains. But the Sierra Nevada continues to lag behind the average. However, the precipitation was not enough to make up for the decreased amount of rain.
Gold Gate City is Dry as a Bone
In fact, the Sierra snowpack is one of California’s most critical water sources. It has spring and summer runoff feeding reservoirs. In addition, to watering crops and filling water glasses. The gauges of the state’s future water support are the depth and breadth of it in winter.
Snowpack is Up in February
The snowpack stood at 40 percent of the average for that time at the start of the last week in January. Then, after the storm, that buried the Tahoe Basin in more than 5 feet of snow and dumped nearly 9 feet to the south in Mammoth across multiple days. It jumped up to 70% as of February 3rd last year.
Atmospheric River Provides a Huge Amount of Precipitation
There is a significant amount of precipitation because of the recent atmospheric river which providing many areas of the state and contributed to the growth of the seasonal snowpack, said Mike Anderson, California’s state climatologist. The regional indices and statewide snowpack average from the automated sensor network show that conditions have gotten better from one-third of average to somewhere between half and two-thirds of average.”
Anderson has noted that the Central Sierra five-station index is a measure of the snow in the region that includes Yosemite Valley and Mammoth. It is an example of the boost to the snowpack. It has increased by 6.6 inches to a seasonal total of 12.4 inches.