It could be pouring rain next month if our recent history is any gauge.
Survey shows snowpack still shrinking
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, February 3, 2007
The year's second snow survey on Friday found that California's snowpack continues shrinking after a dry January.
The statewide snowpack stood at just 43 percent of normal for the date. At one survey location, near Echo Summit on Highway 50, the snowpack has lost 5 inches of depth since Jan. 4. But state officials aren't fretting yet.
"We're obviously running low right now, but you never know what Mother Nature will do," said Frank Gehrke, snow survey chief at the state Department of Water Resources. He noted that in 1963, the state had no snow at all by Feb. 2 but received 20 inches by April.
Also, state reservoir storage is at 110 percent of normal after three wet years.
