{"id":116242,"date":"2026-01-01T13:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/116242\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T13:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:50:09","slug":"californias-vital-snowpack-at-71-of-normal-after-december-storms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/116242\/","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s vital snowpack at 71% of normal after December storms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Phillips-Station-Snow.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Phillips-Station-Snow.jpg\" alt=\"Snow at Phillips Station\" class=\"wp-image-361717\"  \/><\/a>A drone view of the snow at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada. (Photo by Xavier Mascare\u00f1as \/ California Department of Water Resources)<\/p>\n<p>California\u2019s vital \u201cfrozen reservoir\u201d \u2014 the annual snowpack \u2014 has increased to 71% of normal after a series of storms in December.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/water.ca.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Water Resources<\/a> announced the latest measurement on Tuesday, following the traditional manual survey at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe dry conditions and warmer temperatures in early December delayed our snow-building season, but the return of storm activity, especially in the last week, helped to build a solid base for this year\u2019s snowpack,\u201d said Angelique Fabbiani-Leon, the state hydrometerologist. <\/p>\n<p>The statewide figure is based on data from 130 automated stations throughout the Sierra Nevada. The reading of 71% of normal is equivalent to 6.5 inches of water across the mountains and compares with 115% on the same date last year.<\/p>\n<p>While the latest reading is below normal, major California reservoirs are currently at 123% of average thanks to three consecutive years of robust snowpack conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The Sierra snowpack supplies about 30% of California\u2019s water needs. The largest snow-producing months are typically January, February and March.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile California is in a better position now, it is still early in the season and our state\u2019s water supply for this year will ultimately depend on a continued cadence of storms throughout winter and early spring,\u201d said Fabbiani-Leon.<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A drone view of the snow at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada. (Photo by Xavier Mascare\u00f1as \/&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[61917,34442,74,76,75,124,36221,646],"class_list":{"0":"post-116242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-phillips-station","9":"tag-reservoirs","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sierra-nevada","14":"tag-snowpack","15":"tag-water"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}