{"id":271573,"date":"2026-04-16T23:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/271573\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T23:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:15:07","slug":"striking-before-and-after-images-show-extent-of-californias-snow-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/271573\/","title":{"rendered":"Striking before-and-after images show extent of California’s snow drought"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As California experiences its second-worst snow drought in 50 years<\/a>, new images show a stark comparison with last year\u2019s snow levels.<\/p>\n

This year, the Sierra snowpack peaked on Feb. 25. It was only 73% of average, then rapidly dwindled from there.<\/p>\n

Then, summerlike heat in March broke monthly records<\/a> in many areas of the Western United States. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, described it as one of the most \u201cextreme heat events ever observed in the American Southwest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though a spring storm dropped up to 3.5 feet of snow in California\u2019s Sierra Nevada mountains<\/a> last week, extending ski season, snow levels remain extremely low.<\/p>\n

The images below show Grizzly Peak in Northern California\u2019s Shasta-Trinity National Forest in March 2025 (left) and March 2026 (right).<\/p>\n

A large mound of snow visible in the foreground in 2025 was gone in 2026. Mount Shasta, seen in the background, was also noticeably less snowy a year later.<\/p>\n

The Northern Sierra has been hardest hit by this year\u2019s snow drought<\/a>. Snow levels were at just 10% of normal on April 16, compared to 27% in the Central and Southern Sierra.<\/p>\n

On the same day last year, the Northern Sierra was at 102% of normal, the Central Sierra at 81% and the Southern Sierra at 68%.<\/p>\n

Statewide, snow levels were 20% of normal. California\u2019s smallest snowpack on record was in 2015, just 5% of average.<\/p>\n

The images below show the Sierra Buttes in Tahoe National Forest on the same dates in March 2025 (left) and March 2026 (right). <\/p>\n

The difference in snow levels is night and day, with last year\u2019s white peaks replaced by browns and greens.<\/p>\n

The Sierra Nevada snowpack provides around a third of the state\u2019s water supply<\/a>, its spring and summer runoff refilling reservoirs when the state needs the water most.<\/p>\n

Nearly all of California\u2019s reservoirs were at or above historical average levels after this year\u2019s early runoff. <\/p>\n

The warmth and premature melt mean the state\u2019s forests will dry out a month earlier than usual, or even more, Peter Gleick, a leading water scientist and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, told The Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be a very bad fire year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Ian James contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As California experiences its second-worst snow drought in 50 years, new images show a stark comparison with last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2959,117860,68314,36358,15157,34171,40493,69163,18852,21733,117861,225,646,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-271573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-march","12":"tag-monthly-record","13":"tag-new-image","14":"tag-northern-sierra","15":"tag-right","16":"tag-shasta-trinity-national-forest","17":"tag-sierra-snowpack","18":"tag-snow-drought","19":"tag-snow-level","20":"tag-southern-sierra","21":"tag-spring-storm","22":"tag-state","23":"tag-water","24":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271573","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=271573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}