Frank Gehrke

Chief of Snow Surveys, California Dept. of Water Resources

“This is a pretty stunning example of how little snow we’ve had this season.

We’ve got a patch here and a few patches up in the trees, but in a normal year, we’re

at about 6,000 feet in the Sierra’s, mid-February, we should, first of all be on skis,

and not walking , and there should be 3-4 feet of now at this location.

We’re looking at basically, virtually a dry watershed at this point.”

“We depend upon the snow pack to act as a gigantic reservoir, that in ordinary

years, accumulates during the fall and winter and then gradually melts off in

the spring and summer, and replenishes the water that we’ve taken out of the

constructed reservoirs.

“The dilemma that we’re facing this year is with such a sparse snow pack and lack of

precipitation throughout the season already, our reservoir storage is already about

three-quarters of what it should be. “

Rich Preston

Park Superintendent

Folsom Lake State Recreation Area

“Normally we would be under water here. And the top of the lake would be at the

top of that point behind us.

“The lake is very important for not only providing water for the local communities

around, but it also provides habitat for the fisheries downstream and helps balance

the salinity in the San Joaquin Delta. “

Frank Gehrke

“The concept of an atmospheric river is where you have an Arctic or cold air mass

that entrains or brings moisture up from the tropics. And if you look on a satellite or

radar depiction, it’s as though there was a massive river directed at the West Coast.

And it can bring phenomenal amounts of precipitation in a very short period of

time.”

Mike Anderson

State Climatologist

California State Climate Office

“In November and December, 2012, we had a couple large atmospheric river events

and had us on to a strong start to the water year. With the new year of 2013, that

stopped. And we proceeded to have the driest calendar year in 120 years.”

Lynn Ingram

Professor, Earth and Planetary Science

University of California, Berkeley

“Climate is extremely variable. So we have prolonged drought over a decade or

several decades, and in some cases over a century. And it alternates with periods of

when it’s much wetter, and we have big floods. Because we see a recurring pattern

of droughts, over the last few thousand years, we can predict that they probably will

recur again, and we may even have entered one.”

Frank Gehrke

“The lack of snow pack as we move through the season, is going to create real

problems come the summer and the hot weather when we’re coming into this year

with a soil moisture deficit. And as we don’t accumulate, don’t replace that, then this

coming summer it could be pretty grim.”