The April first snowpack survey is considered the most important of the season and the best water supply barometer for the summer and early fall. After a dry February, precipitation was about 80-percent of normal, statewide. But the snowpack only improved from 46 to 53-percent of average. Chris Orrock, with the Department of Water Resources, says it was 162-percent a year ago, the fifth-highest ever measured. This April, it was the eleventh-lowest…

The Northern Sierra snowpack is 57-percent of average, it’s 56-percent for the Central range. But Orrock says rainfall totals were outstanding in the south part of the state…

And Orrock says carryover reservoir storage still looks good, thanks to the previous winter season. Oroville Dam is 85-percent of normal, with Shasta at 98-percent, Bullards Bar at 97-percent, and Englebright Dam at 101-percent. The Department says in the past ten years the state has seen three of the smallest snowpacks on record and three of the largest.