All of those dry January days have taken a toll on California’s snowpack, but officials say it’s too early to worry about drought conditions. The measurement taken on Jan. 2 was a few inches shallower — 33.5 inches — but amounted to a promising start at the time, according to water managers. How much snow falls during this period is critical to California’s annual water outlook and is watched closely by state water managers. The Phillips station, 30 miles west of Tahoe, was grassy and dry when surveyors attempted to measure the snowpack in January 2018. In 2019, conditions were significantly better, with the January snowpack measuring 25.5 inches, or 80% of average for the date.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 30, 2020 17:37 UTC