California is beginning 2025 with a solid start to the winter snowpack, officials said Thursday, but they cautioned that more storms are needed to keep the state's water supplies on track. Officials at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range that covers the eastern part of the state, recorded a snow depth of 24 inches (61 centimeters), said Andy Reising, manager of the Department of Water Resources' snow surveys and water supply forecasting unit.
The water content of the snowpack at the station was 91% of the average to date and 37% of the average on April 1, when the Sierra snowpack is typically at its peak, he said. “As of right now, I am feeling OK, but ... we'll need a progression of monthly storms to keep going,” Reising said, adding that the northern half of the state has seen a series of storms but the south has been dry.
The snowpack functions as a huge frozen reservoir, providing nearly a third of the water used annually in California as it melts and runs off into streams and rivers in the spring. The state has built a complex system of canals and dams to capture that water and store it in huge reservoirs so it can be used the rest of the year when it doesn’t rain or snow.
The measurements are closely watched in California, which is the nation’s most populous state with 39 million people, and also responsible for growing more than a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruit and nuts. The health of the snowpack helps determine whether California will have a difficult time providing water throughout the summer to farms and cities.
