According to California Department of Water Resources survey stations, California’s snowpack is at 0% of the average for June 1 after a dry winter. Mountain snow provides about thirty percent of the annual freshwater supply for the state.
The reading is an average of the department’s 131 stations at various locations and elevations across the mountains of California. 0% of average does not mean there is no snow in the mountains, just that there is no snow where the stations are located.
Of the 131 stations, just three have snow, all at higher elevations at Lower Lassen Peak, Leavitt Lake, and Independence Lake, reports SF Gate.
“This is not unusual in a dry year. We really only look at June snow in really wet years. In a dry year, we’d expect a lot of the snow to be melted out toward the end of May.”
– Sean de Guzman, chief of the department’s Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting section
On June 1st, 2020, a dry winter, the snowpack was at three percent of average. Going back two years, on June 1st, 2019, the snowpack was at 202% of average after record-breaking snowfall and the fifth deepest snowpack on record.
