From Bad To Worse: California's Snowpack Drops To Historic Low

06:18

April 01, 2015

Frank Gehrke, chief of California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program for the Department of Water Resources, walks past some weeds emerging from the snow pack as he conducts the second snow survey of the season at Echo Summit, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015. The survey showed the snow pack to to be 7.1 inches deep with a water content of 2.3 inches, which is 12 percent of normal for this site at this time of year. In a normal year this location is usually covered in several feet of snow. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Today, scientists in California will take readings of one of the most important indicators of the drought situation. The news is not good. Preliminary readings show the snowpack levels at less than 10 percent of their historic average.

The snowpack is often called California's "frozen reservoir," and it supplies as much as one-third of the state's drinking water. What will it mean for the parched state to have so little snow melt this year?

Craig Miller, science editor for KQED in San Francisco, joins Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson with details.

Guest

Craig Miller, science editor for KQED in San Francisco. He tweets @voxterra.

This segment aired on April 1, 2015.