The snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevada is 25 percent of normal for late January, “on par with some of the worst years on record,” says the San Francisco Chronicle. Snowmelt comprises 30 percent of the states water supply in a normal year. It allows irrigation of million acres of cropland and drinking water for most of the state’s population, says the Chronicle. Levels at the two major reservoirs was two-thirds of normal.
Heavy rains fell in California at the end of December but left little snow in the Sierras. “We have pretty much flat-lined as far as winter precipitation is concerned,” a Department of Water Resources official told the Chronicle, which says January “is likely to go down as the driest in California history.” No rain has fallen in San Francisco or Sacramento. The weekly Drought Monitor says 98 percent of California is in drought. The portion of the state in exception drought, the most dire category, was boosted to 39.99 percent. Last week, it was 39.15 percent.