California Snowpack Melts, Leaving State Desperate for Water

(Bloomberg) -- California's mountain snowpack has dwindled to alarmingly low levels after a record dry start to the year, leaving the world's fifth-largest economy mired in drought at the end of its traditionally wet season.

The state's overall snowpack sits at 38% of the average for this time of year, Sean de Guzman, snow survey and water supply forecast manager for the California Department of Water Resources said Friday. Snow levels at Phillips Station, near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada mountains, were at 4% of average for April 1, de Guzman said. While the season got off to a good start, with record snowfall in some mountainous areas in December, the remaining winter months didn't deliver rain or snow.

“What we see here is evocative of 2015, which was California's last big drought,” the department's director, Karla Nemeth, said while standing at the station in a meadow of brown grass that would usually be buried in 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow. “We are calling on all Californians to use water wisely and to conserve as much as you can.”

The low snowpack means some California farmers won't be getting water from their contracts this year, Nemeth said. The state expects farmers to leave much more land fallow this year compared to last due to water shortages, she said.

The April 1 measurements set a baseline for how much water California can expect for the rest of the year and becomes the foundation for many allocation agreements across the state. The numbers show drought throughout California will persist and water will be tight for many. Snow is crucial because it is a natural bank, storing water high in the mountains until it melts in late spring or early summer to replenish supplies.

“Snowpack is a fantastic predictor,'' said Flavio Lehner, a professor of Earth and atmospheric science at Cornell University. ``It is a predictor of how much water there will be in the river.''

As the climate changes and more rain than snow falls in winter, it will hurt the long-term ability to accurately assess how much water will be available, Lehner said.

California proposed a $2.9 billion plan earlier this week to pay farmers to reduce planting to better manage water resources. The voluntary agreement negotiated between the state government and some of its major water agencies was announced Tuesday. Cutting into agricultural use to ensure cities remain supplied with water is one way California has dealt with shortages, David Gochis, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, said in an earlier interview.

California is completely covered by drought and, with except for a few weeks last winter when drought conditions dipped to 99%, the state has been in that parched status since May 2021, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. With a less than average amount of snow in key areas of the Sierra Nevada and other mountains, the state has little chance to reverse that trend. Across the U.S. West, drought has dried up reservoirs, raised the wildfire risk, and will probably lead to more widespread heat waves this summer.