California drought: First snow survey of the year Tuesday as big storms forecast

Full article: California drought: First snow survey of the year [2016]

Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program for the Department of Water Resources, crosses a snow covered meadow as he performs the second manual snow survey of the season at Phillips Station near Echo Summit, Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016. The survey showed the snowpack at 130 percent of normal for this site at this time of year. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) The confetti and champagne bottles have thrown out, but for California drought watchers, the New Year’s festivities are just beginning. Officials from the state Department of Water Resources are scheduled today to take the first […]

Editor’s note: in the preceding season, after some rainfall in Northern California, drought-related restrictions on water use were relaxed — at least in that part of the state. But it is important to remember that the severity and length of the drought cycle has caused California to draw so heavily from its aquifers and deep-ground reserves that its surface soil has actually been subsiding. More than just measurably, it has sunk — like a sponge drying up — so much that damage to irrigation pipes and other infrastructure has been reported. So, even if its reservoirs are filled this year, it might take many years or, conceivably, decades to replenish the underground reserves.