The Sierra Nevada's first snowpack survey of the season on Tuesday found water content at about half of normal, as the state possibly enters a sixth year of drought.
Surveyors took the readings near Lake Tahoe as major storms were bearing down on California, likely to boost the snowpack.
Frank Gehrke, the state's chief snow surveyor, said the water content measured at 53 percent of normal. Despite the low level, he says it's a good start.
Since October, ample rain has fallen swelling reservoirs, but the snowpack has lagged. The mountain snowpack is vital because it provides roughly a third of California's water.
The snowpack must reach more than 100 percent of normal by April 1 to make a dent in the drought.
Last new year, the snowpack was 136 percent of normal. Despite the head start, the snowpack reached just 91 percent of normal and much of California remained in drought conditions throughout 2016. Fewer regions, however, were impacted by "extreme" and "exceptional" drought conditions.
In 2015, when much of the state was experiencing exceptional drought conditions, the snowpack was 45 percent of normal in January and much of it had melted away by April.
This wet season started strong. More rain fell in October than in three decades. But Doug Carlson of the state's Department of Water Resources cautions that the drought clearly hasn't ended.
Five straight years of drought depleted groundwater supplies. Some residents with dry wells, mostly in Tulare County, continue to live on bottled water.
A major storm forecast for Northern and Central California this week is expected to add to to the snowpack. National Weather Service forecaster Bob Benjamin says four to five feet of snow is expected in mountains above 5,000 feet from the Sierra to the Great Basin. Rain is also expected to increase over the next couple days and become more widespread in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Only a slight chance of rain is in the forecast for San Diego through Monday.
The State Water Resources Control Board in February will again consider the conditions, deciding whether the state needs to impose water restrictions.
"If the skies dry up, we'll be looking at something different," board chair Felicia Marcus said. "We're playing this one moment to moment."
