California’s snowpack is making a comeback but it’s still below average. The third survey of the season at Phillips Station shows the statewide snowpack is now at 66% of average for this date following recent storms, and double what officials measured during the last survey. These manual surveys conducted by the Department of Water Resources help determine how much water California will have later this year.”We had a really fortunate cold storm, last week,” said Andy Reising from the Department of Water Resources. “Everybody is up skiing, right, this was a great thing for ski resorts, so very cold, great snow producer throughout the whole state, so that was great. That was what we needed to come out of a really dry spell. We had five weeks beginning of January till February that was no precipitation at all.”Officials say that the cold storm helped after a five-week dry spell, but California is still behind where it stood this time last year, when snowpack was 85% average. Reising said, “The February storms last year really increased here and helped out quite a bit to help us get back towards average. This year, we had storms but the second one was warm and so we didn’t catch up as much as we had hoped.”Last month’s snow survey was abysmal — a snow depth of 23 inches and a snow water content of 8 inches — because of a mostly dry January. Regional numbers vary. Ahead of the survey, below were the snowpack percentages as of Feb. 27, 2026:Statewide: 66% of average for this time of yearNorthern Region: 46% of average for this time of yearCentral Region: 67% of average for this time of yearSouthern Region: 90% of average for this time of year”That big storm was what we wanted to see,” Reising said. “That really helped us, but then we had a very, very warm storm – atmospheric river – come in, dump a lot of rain, compacted it and at the lower elevations washed a lot of this lower elevation snow away.”Now, all eyes are on March, as water officials say the April 1 survey will be the most important of the season, typically when the snowpack reaches its peak. The next survey will give a clearer picture of how much water California will have heading into the summer dry season.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. —

California’s snowpack is making a comeback but it’s still below average.

The third survey of the season at Phillips Station shows the statewide snowpack is now at 66% of average for this date following recent storms, and double what officials measured during the last survey.

These manual surveys conducted by the Department of Water Resources help determine how much water California will have later this year.

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“We had a really fortunate cold storm, last week,” said Andy Reising from the Department of Water Resources. “Everybody is up skiing, right, this was a great thing for ski resorts, so very cold, great snow producer throughout the whole state, so that was great. That was what we needed to come out of a really dry spell. We had five weeks beginning of January till February that was no precipitation at all.”

Officials say that the cold storm helped after a five-week dry spell, but California is still behind where it stood this time last year, when snowpack was 85% average.

Reising said, “The February storms last year really increased here and helped out quite a bit to help us get back towards average. This year, we had storms but the second one was warm and so we didn’t catch up as much as we had hoped.”

Last month’s snow survey was abysmal — a snow depth of 23 inches and a snow water content of 8 inches — because of a mostly dry January.

Regional numbers vary. Ahead of the survey, below were the snowpack percentages as of Feb. 27, 2026:

Statewide: 66% of average for this time of yearNorthern Region: 46% of average for this time of yearCentral Region: 67% of average for this time of yearSouthern Region: 90% of average for this time of year

“That big storm was what we wanted to see,” Reising said. “That really helped us, but then we had a very, very warm storm – atmospheric river – come in, dump a lot of rain, compacted it and at the lower elevations washed a lot of this lower elevation snow away.”

Now, all eyes are on March, as water officials say the April 1 survey will be the most important of the season, typically when the snowpack reaches its peak. The next survey will give a clearer picture of how much water California will have heading into the summer dry season.

See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel