Sierra snowpack shows El Niño not as beastly as billed

The blame for California’s below-average snowpack was placed Wednesday at the feet of a largely impotent El Niño, which failed to deliver the powerful storms forecasters expected.

Frank Gehrke, the chief of cooperative snow surveys for the department, said the famous weather pattern known by its Spanish moniker didn’t perform as expected.

What happened is that the winter storm track was farther north than expected and dropped much more rain and snow in the northern part of the state than in the south.

The Phillips snow course, where Gehrke took measurements Wednesday, is one of 250 locations where surveyors use metal tubes to calculate the depth and water content of the Sierra snow.

The measurements are taken during a 10-day window around the first of every month from January to May and are combined with electronic measurements from as many as 130 locations to gauge California’s drinking water supply for the year.

A healthy snowpack is crucial because snow makes up 60 percent of the water captured in California’s reservoirs when it melts in the spring — and one-third of the state’s overall water supply in a normal year.

Both have recently had to spill water to make room for spring runoff.

Shasta and Oroville carry 80 percent of the state’s reservoir supply, which is used to irrigate 8 million acres of farmland and provide water to close to 30 million people.