Hope for California Drought: Sierra Snowpack is 136 Percent of Normal
In an anxiously watched rite of winter, state Department of Water Resources surveyor Frank Gehrke weighed a tube of snow at Echo Summit and found it held 16.3 inches of water, about 136 percent of the historical average for the site. To get to the site, he trudged through snow more than 4.5 feet deep — about 1.5 feet deeper than average.
Water officials, however, stressed that while the measurements were far better than last December's paltry 4 inches, California still has a long way to go to recover from its punishing drought, which is now three months into its fifth consecutive year.
The encouraging omen comes as El Nino, a weather phenomenon caused by warming Pacific Ocean water along the equator, is expected to deliver a parade of storms to California in early January. It's already being blamed for weird weather elsewhere in the U.S: flooding in the Midwest, blizzards in New Mexico and tornadoes in Texas.
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/california-drought-sierra-snowpack-is-136-percent-of-normal/