Weather Service: Snowpack increases with storms but dry weather may return

Here's the latest from the National Weather Service in Reno on the storms: This graph shows the change in snowpack percentage from the SNOTEL sites in the four main Sierra basins. Before the series of storms in the past week, all of the basins were below 10 percent of the season-to-date normals. As of early this morning, the snowpack has increased to around 25-30 percent of normal, which includes partial totals from the Sunday night-Monday storm. The table in the lower right shows the comparison of total precipitation (rain and snow water content) from the past week to the normal for January, with most areas receiving precipitation near or above the normal amounts for the whole month. Despite these much improved values, the season is still quite dry, especially when compared to the very wet 2010-11 season. Dry conditions are expected to return for the remainder of the month, so these snowpack values will level off, then slowly decrease.