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1st Sierra Snow Pack Measurement This Winter Comes Up Short

SACRAMENTO (KCBS) – Officials with the California Department of Water Resources measured the Sierra Nevada snow pack Tuesday — the first measurement of the snow pack this winter — and things came up short.

The snow pack supplies about one-third of the water used by residents, agriculture and industry - so a lot of snow in the Sierra would go a long way toward ending the ongoing record drought.

Water officials said that even though December was wet, it was warmer than what's needed to generate a greater than normal snowfall in the Sierra Nevada and that it's only about half of what it would be in an average year.

"The problem with the recent storm in December is that it blew in on fairly warm weather and so what precipitation did fall, didn't fall as snow. It fell as rain," said Doug Carlson, information officer at the California Department of Water Resources.

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