(KMJ) – Officials in drought-stricken California say the water content of the Sierra Nevada snow pack measures 130 percent of normal for this time of year.
Frank Gehrke of the Department of Water Resources said Tuesday it’s an encouraging start to the winter, but the drought’s not over. He plunged a measuring pole into 76 inches of snow near Echo Summit in the Central Sierra, which includes Lake Tahoe.
Water managers say they’re focused on the April 1 snow pack, when it’s historically at its deepest. And they say the snow pack needs be 150 percent of normal, signaling an easing drought.
Gehrke says the depth marks an improvement over last April’s surveys, when he found the lowest snowfall on record. An electronic measurement collected throughout the Sierra says the snowpack is at 114 percent.
