Tagged: sierra

The season’s final snow survey in California found what most expected – dry conditions. Snow surveyors found absolutely no snow on the ground at Phillips Station, nearly 7,000 feet up Echo Summit in the Sierras.

Water content in California’s snowpack is only 17 percent of normal, meaning a below average water supply this summer.

Frank Gehrke with the Department of Water Resources says despite that, most reservoirs are near normal levels for the date thanks to early winter storms.

The next to the last snow survey of the season shows extremely dry conditions for California. As Amy Quinton reports from Sacramento, it has prompted the Department of Natural Resources to call the security of the state’s water supply “threatened.”

 The bad news: the water content in California’s snowpack is only 52 percent of normal. What’s worse, the spring melt is underway. While the season started with water content above 130 percent of normal in January, it’s been unusually dry ever since. 

This week on Valley Edition we take a hike into the foothills of Fresno County. Valley Public Radio’s Ezra Romero takes the listener on a journey through the McKenzie Table Mountain Preserve run by the Sierra Foothill Conservancy. Jeannette Tuitele – Lewis, executive director of the Sierra Foothill Conservancy, joins host Juanita Stevenson in a discussion surrounding the Valley locale, its ties to the community and future dates for preserve exploration.