Sierra snowpack at 130% of normal

The greater the snowpack water content, the greater the chance that California’s reservoirs will receive ample runoff as the snowpack melts to meet the state’s water demand in the summer and fall.

Most of the state’s major reservoirs still hold much less than their historical averages for early February, so residents should continue to conserve water, DWR officials said.

California has saved a combined 25.5 percent since the mandate was issued in June and called for savings from 2013 use rates, the agency said.

Californians used 18 percent less water in December than the same month in 2013, but water regulators say the state is still reaching the long-term 25 percent savings goal set by Governor Jerry Brown.

State water managers remain focused on April 1 – when the Sierra Nevada snowpack is historically at its deepest.

Brown ordered the statewide cutback during the state’s fourth year of drought.

“We’re at halftime”, state water board chair Felicia Marcus said in an interview. “We’re not doing too badly, but we certainly haven’t won the game yet”.

Folsom Lake is 104 percent of normal for this time of year and at 56 percent of total capacity, according to the California Data Exchange.

However, the State Water Resources Control Board reported Tuesday at a meeting in Sacramento that California remains on course to beat its long-term conservation goal.

Still, he said, the state needs to see storms each week to ease the drought.

An electronic measurement collected throughout the Sierra says the snowpack is at 114 percent.

Contributing to the lower monthly savings, December 2015 saw the lowest level of water provider compliance to date with 60 percent of suppliers meeting their conservation standards.

Under the proposed regulations, especially hot and dry inland communities might be able to get a slight cut in their conservation targets.

The Sacramento area has had little choice but to save a lot of water.

Nonetheless, Californians are urged by the water board to keep up their efforts to conserve through the winter months. Landau said December was cooler and wetter than December 2013, which usually helps with water conservation. “We anticipated a drought, were proactive and we made a huge investment”. The board will vote later today, February 2, on a new regulation through October. But water officials said they would review it again in the spring.

Associated Press photographer Rich Pedroncelli contributed to this story from Echo Summit.