Of course, dams and spillways are so full the state's mandated releasing water. Folsom Lake's water level is 10 feet higher than last month, with more high levels expected with the snow melt.
Still, it's been four years of drought, so apparently we're not out of the woods. CBS Evening News has the video report below.
And at LAT, "Sierra snowpack shows improvement, but not enough to declare California's drought over":
In a symbolic moment in California's slow but steady drought recovery, a state surveyor on Wednesday found several feet of snow in the same Sierra Nevada meadow that was bare and brown just a year ago.Still more.
The depth of the snowpack was declared to be just below average, a huge improvement from last year, but still far from enough to declare the drought over.
Around 11 a.m., Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, thrust a long silver tube into Phillips Station’s renewed, robust snowpack and, minutes later, told gathered reporters that there was more than 58 inches of snow on the ground.
That snow held 26 inches of water content, he said, just short of average for the date.
“A big improvement compared to last year,” Gehrke said, “but not what we had hoped for.”
The Phillips Station measurement — which officials said was 97% of average — provides data for just one location and therefore is considered more symbolic than definitive. The results from the station about 90 miles east of Sacramento are not necessarily representative of statewide conditions, officials say.
Water officials prefer to use the electronic readings taken remotely at about 100 stations across the Sierra Nevada for a more accurate assessment. The latest readings, taken Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. showed that the water content held by the state’s snowpack was about 24 inches, or 87% of normal...
Plus, more video from KCRA News 3 Sacramento, "Disappointing results from Wednesday’s Sierra snow survey."
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