Check out how much California snowpack has increased over the past 12 days – Orange County Register

The Golden State’s snowpack has grown meteorically in recent weeks, and more snow is expected to cover the California Sierra in the coming days.

On Thursday, the state’s snow cover was 18.4 inches, up from just 11.3 inches at Christmas. That’s about 70% of the snowpack we normally accumulate by the end of the snow season on April 1st. While that doesn’t sound like a lot of snow — winter storms can dump two feet of snow at once — the number is impressive, something that’s been called the “snowwater equivalent.” This is the depth of water that would cover the ground if all the snow melted.

And in the coming week things should go uphill again. The National Weather Service is forecasting that the ongoing storm surge sweeping the state will dump up to 20 inches of fresh snow on the Tahoe Basin’s tallest peaks by Friday morning.

But what does all this mean for the drought in California? Looking at data for the past year, it’s clear that early downpours don’t always result in lush snowpack at the end of the season. Of the seven years over the past two decades that the state recorded above-average snow cover on January 5, only four ended the snow season with above-average snow transports.