SACRAMENTO, Calif — Winter is looking a lot more like itself in California’s mountains.
Snow showers fell Monday in the mountains of Southern California and some Sierra Nevada peaks sported new coats of white. The early March turnabout follows a February that set records for dryness in parts of the state. The Bear Mountain resort at Big Bear east of Los Angeles reports 6-8 inches of new snow overnight while Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierra says Sunday’s storm delivered 9-11 inches of snow.
This is a welcome sight at the most recent snowpack survey, the third so far this year, showed California is 47% below the average for this time of the year. The manual snow survey recorded 29 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent of 11.5 inches of water.
Even though the snowpack is below average, there are some things working in the state's favor. First, reservoir levels are pretty good thanks to the above-average snowfall during the 2018-2019 winter season.
According to the Department of Water Resources, out of the 154 biggest reservoirs in the state, we're 104% of average.
So what's on the radar for the first week of March? The sunshine and mild temperatures return for the workweek. The next chance for rainfall returns this weekend.
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