While ski resorts in Northern California are reporting five feet of snow from the weekend’s stormy weather, Santa Barbara County felt more than four inches of rainfall by a chilly Thursday morning. In terms of drought, all that snow adds to the positive water picture of county reservoirs at or more than 100 percent full.
A dry January led to a measurement of California’s snowpack of 59 percent of average at the end of the month, even after the big storms last fall. Traditionally, the heaviest snowfall drops January through March in the Sierra Nevada, where the spring runoff reserve for California mounds up during a good winter.
After February’s blizzards, the snowpack now sits at 69 percent of average, said Jason Ince of the state’s Department of Water Resources (DWR). “However, thanks to three consecutive seasons with above average or near-average precipitation — winters of 2023, ’24, and ’25 — major reservoir across the state are all well above their historical averages and water supplies are generally in positive conditions,” Ince stated…