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California Department of Water Resources staff members conduct a snow survey in a mostly barren meadow at Phillips Station in El Dorado County on April 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
Nick Shockey\/California Department of Water Resources<\/p>\n
When state experts visited the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday for their annual snow survey, they\u00a0found literally nothing<\/a> left to measure. The snow had melted already.<\/p>\n Preliminary data shows that this year\u2019s April 1 snowpack is the second lowest on record, according to the California Department of Water Resources. That\u2019s a big loss for California, which relies on the so-called frozen reservoir for\u00a0about a third<\/a> of its water needs.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n California Cooperative Snow Surveys unit manager Jim Shannon, left, and California Department of Water Resources engineer Jacob Kollen conduct the fourth media snow survey of the 2026 season at Phillips Station, 90 miles east of Sacramento off Highway 50 in El Dorado County in the Sierra Nevada, on April 1, 2026.<\/p>\n Melissa Sanchez Robinson\/California Department of Water Resources<\/p>\n Even though precipitation did in fact blanket California this winter, the record-breaking heat<\/a> meant it either arrived as rain or else melted away quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been having a warm snow drought this winter,\u201d Andrew Schwartz, the director of the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, told SFGATE. \u201cThere are a few ways to get to snow drought. What we\u2019re seeing this year is plenty of precipitation but warm temperatures, meaning rain instead of snow.\u201d<\/p>\n California\u2019s water resource managers begin recording<\/a> snow and rain every fall. To date, the statewide snowpack stands at 20% of average<\/a>. But because the storm systems trended south this year, the Southern Sierra has 32%, Central Sierra 23% and the Northern Sierra only 8%.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI described it as looking like powdered sugar on top of a cake,\u201d David Rizzardo, an engineer for the California Department of Water Resources, said during a media briefing about the snow caught in the survey on April 1. \u201cDoes it really add up enough to melt and run off into the streams? Probably not.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew Nixon\/California Department of Water Resources<\/p>\n This year\u2019s statewide snowpack peaked in late February, according to the state water department<\/a>. A warm atmospheric river in February and a record-shattering heat wave in March triggered the snow to thaw at least a month early.<\/p>\n \u201cThe melt rates that we\u2019ve seen in March are really not seen in March,\u201d David Rizzardo, an engineer for the California Department of Water Resources, said during a media briefing on April 1. \u201cThey\u2019re usually seen in April or May.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The lowest recorded April snowpack was in 2015 during an extreme drought. But this season, total precipitation averaged statewide since October 2025 adds up to 19 inches of rain, amounting to\u00a096% of normal<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, the thing about this year that is unusual is that our precipitation is near average,\u201d Michael Anderson, the state climatologist for the Department of Water Resources, commented during a recent media briefing. He added, \u201cIt was just rain instead of snow. And this is something that we\u2019ll have to pay attention to, as temperatures are playing an increasing role in how our hydrology is unfolding.\u201d<\/p>\n This year\u2019s statewide snowpack peaked in late February, according to the state water department. A warm atmospheric river in February and a record-shattering heat wave in March triggered the snow to thaw at least a month early.<\/p>\n Andrew Nixon\/California Department of Water Resources<\/p>\n Anderson\u2019s agency forecasts future water supply for the state\u2019s rivers and reservoirs with the data from the April 1 snowpack surveys. Reservoir managers use this information to control potential floods and set water supply goals ahead of the dry season. To monitor the effect of the extreme March heat wave, the department added 100 snow surveys across 18 watersheds.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The good news is that most of California\u2019s\u00a0major reservoirs<\/a> remain filled up, though it might not be for long.<\/p>\n \u201cOur system relies a lot on snow right now,\u201d Steven Ritchie, who oversees water system operations and planning from Hetch Hetchy for the\u00a0SF Public Utilities Commission, told SFGATE. \u201cWe try to fill up our reservoirs so that by the first of July, when snow melt ends normally, we have a full system that can supply our customers throughout the summer and into the fall.\u201d<\/p>\n Ritchie explained the early melt will likely shift that whole timeline. \u201cWe\u2019re going to end up lower in October, and so going into next year, we\u2019re going to be in more of a deficit than we usually are,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see where we go from there. This could be the beginning of a drought.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The early melt and heat also mean that wildfire season could arrive early.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cA big concern with snowpack disappearing six weeks earlier than average in a lot of areas is that it\u2019s six more weeks of warm, dry conditions for fuels to become primed for big fires,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n Karla Nemeth, the director of\u00a0California Department of Water Resources, addresses news media alongside spokesperson Jason Ince at the snow survey on April 1.<\/p>\n Andrew Nixon\/California Department of Water Resources<\/p>\n Similar dynamics are playing out across the entire Southwest, according to Daniel Swain, a UC Agriculture and Natural Resources climate scientist. The March heat wave set off extreme alarm bells for Swain. \u201cThis was probably the most statistically and meteorologically extreme heat event that has occurred in the Southwestern U.S.,\u201d he said during his online office<\/a> hours on Tuesday. \u201c… For as long as we have kept rigorous records of extreme heat events, this was the singularly most anomalous one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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