I am Maureen Cavanaugh. It is Wednesday, March 2. First in the headlines today, state surveyor say their most recent measurements of the California snowpack are not turning out as well as they hoped. Some good snow early in the season has petered out and now rainfall is only a percentage of average. They were hoping that El Niño would drop more than 100% worth of delivery. Joining me is Dan Cayan with Scripps Institution of Oceanography . Welcome. Dan how are you? Find. Thank you. The snowpack in the last El Niño was more than double than it is today, ways this El Niño not doing the same? We have had a pretty active North Pacific storm season. But the storms have been a little diffused and not gotten down into this year into the extent that we had hoped in February. Actually up until February we were tracking quite well. We've plateaued over the last three weeks or so with all this warm weather we've had. We've really kind of lost a step there. What I would point out, Maureen, is winter is not over. We are expecting to see some pretty active storming us in the next week. That's really the pattern that we see in California winners is it kind of stops and starts. Hopefully this next start will help us towards at least a normal -- and if were really lucky, will catapult us about that. As you mentioned, Dan, this is turning into one of the warmest winters in California. How does that affect the actual amount of water that we get from the snowpack? Well it does he wrote the snowpack somewhat. I am actually looking at the traces in northern central, in southern Sierra right as we speak. We really haven't lost very much, even though it has been so warm. So the snow water that is harbored there in the higher elevations has melted a bit. But it has largely been contained. With this next three of stormy weather, it will be cooler. And we will build more snow. It's still -- we can still be somewhat optimistic. We are way ahead of what we had last year. At least you can say that. To the larger picture, Dan, this trend of warm winters is predicted by climate change scientists like yourself to continue. Will we be able to rely on the snowpack is a water source as much as we have in the past? In the next few decades we are going to be characterized largely by variability from when you to the next. As time goes on through the 21st century, the increase in temperatures is probably going to be a larger part of the story. And the spring snowpack is going to decline because we are going to get more precipitation in the brain and less as snow, particularly in the lower to middle elevations. And the snow that we do receive is going to melt faster. So snow is in the longer term going to be a less reliable -- reservoir for. And we are going to have to be able to manage the water that we get in the wintertime more cleverly and efficiently in order to make do. As you say cover the hopeful know, winters and over this year. So we will have to wait and see. We have updated the KPBS drought tracker with the new numbers from these surveyors. You can see how the rain and snowpack levels today compared to previous years. You can go to KPBS.org/doubt -- drought tracker. They been speaking with Dan Cayan of Scripps Institution of Oceanography . Dan, thank you so much. You bet.
An unwelcome three-week winter dry spell left the California snowpack at just 83 percent of average, a setback for the state as it tries to break out of record drought, state snow surveyors found Tuesday.
In an icy meadow in California's central Sierra Nevada, state surveyor Frank Gehrke plunged poles into snowbanks, measuring how much snow was lost to a February with record warm temperatures and little rain.
Californians depend on snowfall for a third of their water and have hoped this year's strong El Nino system would deliver heavy snow and rain.
After a wet December and January, however, sunshine and blue skies returned, bringing temperatures in the 90s to Southern California last month.
The year had a "very good start, and then ... February just did not come through,' Gehrke said.
Gehrke's measuring site showed snowpack at 105 percent of average, compared to 130 percent at the same spot the month before.
Statewide, snowpack Tuesday was at 83 percent of normal, officials said.
California last year marked its driest four-year spell on record, leading Gov. Jerry Brown last April to order mandatory 25 percent water conservation for cities and towns. The conservation order remains in effect.
Officials say bringing the state out of drought would require snowpack at 150 percent of average by April 1.
December, January and February typically are the wettest months in California. However, late spring storm patterns dubbed "March Miracles" helped ease dry spells in 1991 and 1995, state Department of Water Resources officials noted.
Californians can still hope for such a miracle this week, when changing weather patterns promise to send a series of storms over the state, the National Weather Service said.
Forecasters expect as much as 7 inches of rain in Northern California in the coming days and heavy snow in the mountains.
