Snow survey finds California's snowpack drastically low for this stage of winter

[Redfairen]

The signs aren’t good when the chief of California’s snow survey has to walk over bare ground to take a snowpack measurement in the Sierra Nevada, as Frank Gehrke did Friday near Echo Summit.

Manual and electronic readings up and down the range placed the statewide snowpack at 20% of normal for this date, adding to worries that 2014 could be a bad drought year.

The meager snowpack was not a surprise. Last year was California’s driest in 119 years of records, according to the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno.

Los Angeles and other cities around the state recorded their lowest precipitation amounts for a calendar year. The levels of key reservoirs have been dropping when they should be rising with winter rains.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-78767402/

[Atman]

1. Been talking to my snowboard buddies in Tahoe...no snow

They say it practically summer. Resorts are trying to open with a skim coat of leftover man made snow, but at 60 degrees even that isn't cutting it. It looks pretty grim.