California snowpack survey canceled: 'Drought is severe'

California snowpack survey canceled: ‘Drought is severe’

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Skiers make their way around patches of dirt at Squaw Valley Ski Resort. (Max Whittaker / Getty Images)

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Gov. Jerry Brown speaks to reporters about the executive order he signed requiring the state water board to implement measures in cities and towns to cut water usage by 25%. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

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Gov. Jerry Brown answers a question about the new mandatory water restrictions during a news conference in Echo Summit. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

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The landscape and light snowpack at Echo Summit tower over the news conference below. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

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Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program for the Department of Water Resources, and Gov. Jerry Brown walk across a dry meadow that is usually covered in several inches of snow this time of year near Echo Summit on April 1. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

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A snowboarder threads his way between patches of dirt at Squaw Valley Ski Resort in Olympic Valley, Calif., on March 21. (Max Whittaker / Getty Images)

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Skiers on a chairlift ride over dry ground at Squaw Valley Ski Resort on March 21. (Max Whittaker / Getty Images)

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Sixteen-year-old Jack Feick of Truckee skims over a pond at Squaw Valley Ski Resort on March 21. (Max Whittaker / Getty Images)

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A skier threads his way through patches of dry ground at Squaw Valley Ski Resort on March 21. (Max Whittaker / Getty Images)

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Skiers slalom down at Squaw Valley Ski Resort. (Max Whittaker / Getty Images)

By Matt Stevens

May 1, 2015 7:54 AM PT

State water officials had planned to make the trek back to the Sierra Nevada to conduct their snowpack measurement Friday.

But Thursday they announced they wouldn’t bother. For the second consecutive month, there won’t be any snow to measure.

“This is just another piece of information in a series of increasingly dismal findings,” said Department of Water Resources spokesman Doug Carlson. “It nails down that the drought is severe – maybe as severe as any in our history.”

The latest disappointing news comes a month after Gov. Jerry Brown stood on a field at Phillips Station – where this week’s manual measurement was to occur – and announced California’s first mandatory statewide water use cuts to combat the ongoing drought. It was the only April 1 survey since 1941 without any snow.

Officials say conditions have gotten even worse since then.

Though the manual measurement east of Sacramento often provides a backdrop for media coverage, the state uses electronic sensors up and down the Sierra to measure the water content of the snow. Snowpack accounts for about 30% of the state’s water supply when it melts in the late spring and summer and replenishes reservoirs.

On April 1, statewide measurements showed that the snowpack’s water content was just 5% normal for that date, the lowest in records going back to 1950. Thursday’s readings indicate the snowpack’s water content is half an inch or about 3% of normal for this time period.

“We can’t count on the Sierra snowpack to replenish our water supplies,” California Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin said in a prepared statement. “Major reservoirs are dropping at a time when they typically would be filling with melted snow. We need careful, sparing use of water across the state, because we don’t know when this drought will end.”

The last time snow was found at Phillips Station during the May 1 measurement was in 2011, officials said.

Follow @ByMattStevens for coverage of the California drought, the Westside and breaking news.