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randomsteve95370
57% and 63% is definitely low. But not catastrophically low like last year.
As always, there is more to the story than just the final results. If you look at the individual courses that make up the final aggregate result you'll see that the courses at roughly 8,000' and above are at ~80% of average while the course below that are generally much lower, 40% to 0%. I think this can be attributed to two factors, a higher than average snowline and spring runoff starting earlier. The higher snowline means more rain and less snow at the 7,000' to 8,000' band, depositing less snow and melting existing snow. Spring runoff typically started after April 1, hence why the April 1 snow survey is considered the benchmark survey, but it seems runoff is starting earlier, so there is less snow when comparing a given date with on in year's past.
This may mean that we got the same amount of water as precipitation this year as in average year (I'm not sure, more of a hypothetical) but less of it is currently snow. That itself is important as the snowpack is the state's biggest reservoir by far. This also corresponds to the predictions of climate change, a higher snow line, less snow, more rain and earlier runoff. This winter maybe the new 'normal'.
Also, one shouldn't think that with a low overall snowpack they'll be able to hike in the high country without snow soon.
