CALIFORNIA BEGINS 2024 WITH BELOW-NORMAL SNOWPACK A YEAR AFTER ONE OF THE BEST STARTS IN DECADES
California is beginning 2024 with a below-normal mountain snowpack a year after it had one of its best starts in decades, and officials said Tuesday that the weather whiplash has made the outcome of this winter uncertain. The water content of the statewide snowpack was 25% of the average to date, said Sean de Guzman, a water supply forecasting official with the California Department of Water Resources. The snowpack functions as a huge frozen reservoir, providing about 30% of the water used annually in California as it melts and runs off into streams and rivers in the spring. De Guzman conducted the first in a seasonal series of manual measurements on a snow course in the Sierra Nevada at Phillips Station, south of Lake Tahoe. The department also collects measurements with electronic instruments at more than 260 other sites.
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