California Begins 2025 With Solid Start to Winter Snowpack, but More Storms Are Needed

By Associated Press

Published 6 months ago on

January 3, 2025

California's winter snowpack shows promise, but officials stress the need for more storms to ensure water supply. (AP/Brooke Hess-Homeier)

California's snowpack is at 91% of average for this time of year, with 24 inches recorded at Phillips Station.
State reservoirs are above historical averages, leading to increased water allocations for farms and cities.
Central and southern California mountains are experiencing less precipitation than northern regions.

PHILLIPS STATION — California is beginning 2025 with a solid start to the winter snowpack, officials said Thursday, but they cautioned that more storms are needed to keep the state’s water supplies on track.

Officials at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range that covers the eastern part of the state, recorded a snow depth of 24 inches (61 centimeters), said Andy Reising, manager of the Department of Water Resources’ snow surveys and water supply forecasting unit. The water content of the snowpack at the station is currently at 91% of the average for this time of year and 37% of the average for April 1, when the Sierra snowpack is typically at its peak, he said.

“As of right now, I am feeling OK, but … we’ll need a progression of monthly storms to keep going,” Reising said, adding that the northern half of the state has seen a series of storms but the south has been dry.

Snowpack’s Crucial Role in California’s Water Supply

The snowpack functions as a huge frozen reservoir, providing nearly a third of the water used annually in California as it melts and runs off into streams and rivers in the spring. The state has built a complex system of canals and dams to capture that water and store it in huge reservoirs so it can be used the rest of the year when it doesn’t rain or snow.

The measurements are closely watched in California, which is the nation’s most populous state with 39 million people, and also responsible for growing more than a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruit and nuts. The health of the snowpack helps determine whether California will have a difficult time providing water throughout the summer to farms and cities.

The survey was the first in a seasonal series of manual measurements at Phillips Station. The department also collects measurements with electronic instruments at other sites, and said that statewide the snowpack is 108% of average.

Reservoir Levels and Water Allocations

Many of California’s state-run reservoirs are at two-thirds or three-quarters of their capacity, and well above the historical average for the start of the year, thanks to two years of above-average snowpack conditions, state data shows. Last week, California officials told farms and cities that rely on state water supplies that they would get more water than previously planned because of strong storms at the end of 2024. They can now expect to get 15% of their requested supplies instead of 5%, and that number could go up if the wet weather continues.

But state water officials said the central and southern stretches of California’s mountains aren’t seeing nearly as much precipitation as the northern reaches of the state. Michael Anderson, the state climatologist, said a high pressure system off the Pacific Coast has been pushing stormy weather north and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks, which could make it difficult to catch up to historic averages for the snowpack in these regions.

“The historical record says it’s not unheard of, but it’s not likely,” Anderson said. “We’re being watchful right now.”

A year ago, the state began the season with below-normal mountain snowpack and a water content of about 25% of the average. By April, the water content measured 110% of the average. That followed a massive snowpack to start 2023, after a series of atmospheric rivers helped pull the state out of a three-year drought.