Storm leaves California with just 39 percent average snow

A welcome late-winter storm has more than quadrupled the snowpack in parts of California’s Sierra Nevada.

California water official Frank Gehrke measured 41.1 inches of snow Monday at Phillips Station in the Sierra.

Sierra snowpack typically provides a third of California’s water each year. This year has been unusually dry.

Gehrke says the same meadow had just 7 percent of its usual snowfall a couple of weeks ago. A big winter storm last week has brought that up to 39 percent.

He calls it “very encouraging.”