Snowpack Survey Results Promising, Officials Say More Storms Still Needed

The California Department of Water Resources is conducting the first manual snow survey of the season at Phillips Station in the Sierra Thursday. DWR reports 78.5 inches of snow with a water content of 20 inches at the snow course near Echo Summit along Highway 50. That's 202% of average for this time at that location. It's 81% of what they would expect to find at that location on April 1st, the last survey of the season. Statewide, remote sensors show the total snowpack at 160% of normal for this date.