California's 'Dismally Meager' Snowpack Signals More Drought

After measuring California's mountain snow on Thursday, state officials described it as "dismally meager" and predicted that a fourth year of drought is on the way.

Statewide, the water trapped in the form of snow is just a quarter of the amount usually found at this time of year, California's Department of Water Resources reported shortly after teams returned from measuring snow levels at Echo Summit in the Sierra Nevada mountains, southwest of Lake Tahoe.

Mountain snows provide, on average, nearly a third of California's water, with January typically the state's wettest month.

"Clearly not good news," said Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, which tracks snow conditions. "With this paltry a snowpack, the runoff is going to be pretty sparse."

The trouble extends beyond California. Snow levels in the Northwest and parts of Arizona are also at less than half of normal, according to a report issued Thursday by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, provoking hand-wringing among ski resort personnel and water managers in Washington state and Oregon.

And drought conditions stretch down the West Coast and into parts of Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and much of the Southwest.