Storms boost snowpack, but not enough

The Associated Press

03/02/2009 09:03:59 PM PST

SACRAMENTO - Several weeks of storms have deepened the Sierra snowpack, but California remains well below what it needs to replenish water supplies and lessen the state's drought, the state Department of Water Resources reported Monday.

The snowpack was about 80 percent of its usual water content across the 400-mile-long mountain range, the agency said. That's short of the 120 percent target state water officials estimate is needed by next month to fill the state's major reservoirs.

DWR director Lester Snow said conditions do not look promising.

"Although recent storms have added to the snowpack, California remains in a serious drought," Snow said in a statement. "On the heels of two critically dry years it is unlikely we will make up the deficit and be able to refill our reservoirs before winter's end."

The findings are part of the third snow survey of the season and come days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state drought emergency that asks Californians to cut by their water use by 20 percent.

Measurements of snow depth and water content in the Sierra are important because they help hydrologists forecast how much water could flow into reservoirs that supply roughly two-thirds of the state and farmers in the Central Valley.

Three years of below-average rain and snowfall have drained California 's key reservoirs to the lowest levels since 1992.

California 's largest reservoirs - Shasta and Oroville are slightly more than half as full as they should be. Pumping restrictions in the Sacramento San Joqauin Delta to protect a threatened fish have compounded water shortages for most of the state.