Snow Depth and Reservoir Levels Doing Well in the West
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Part way through the winter season, and in the Southwest the rainfall season, and it's time to check to see how things are doing as far as precipitation and snowpack. In general, pretty darn well. In areas that it was feared were going to be in a drought year, the numbers are anything but droughtlike. This should make water managers smile a little, and it may mean more money in your pocket next year than if there was a drought.
The following is a map of the snow depth departure from normal all across the West.
Areas of blues and purple have above- to much-above-normal snow depth, and the yellow and oranges are below. As you can see, a large percentage of the West is in the blue. This is especially true for the Sierra, the Wasatch range, and a large portion of the Cascades. There is an area of the northern Cascades that has below-normal snow depth. The more widespread area of lower-than-normal snow depth is in the northern Rockies from Montana and eastern Idaho to northwestern Wyoming. The good news in some of these areas is that the rest of the winter should be kind to you for additional snowfall, and negative departures should diminish.
For California, having had major water woes in the last several years, the mega storms of December brought a ton of snow and rain. The chart below shows a breakdown of the northern, central and southern Sierra showing snow water equivalent and the percentage of normal to date, also compared to what should be normal on April 1.
Will look around.
Good luck to anyone needing to go Reno today. Hwy 395 just closed between Lee Vining and Bridgeport due to blizzard conditions and part of I-80 between Sacramento and Reno closed due to whiteout conditions. Dumping snow in Mammoth right now.