California and most of the western part of the world depend on snowflakes. There has been very little snowfall, as well as rapid spring snow, this year. As a result, the amount of snow that falls on the ice, or the amount of water that will come out of the ice sheet once it melts, became much lower. In California, snow-like water is about 6% of current levels. Thus, nothing is left of the Sierra Nevadas, and government data showing less snow water by about an inch.
The country resumed the winter in a time of drought. Which, combined with hunger and snow in winter, left the soil so dry that the water from the snow bag had seeped into the ground instead of flowing into rivers, streams, and dams.
“What amazes me as a meteorologist is seeing snow melt and seeing rivers and unanswered waves,” said Daniel Swain, a meteorologist at the University of California, Los Angeles and Nature Conservancy, told CNN. “The ground beneath the snow is so dry that there can be no running water.”
By this week, Drought Analysis announced that the entire state of California is now facing a drought. About three-quarters of the government is in extreme or severe drought, the worst affected.
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