Snow blankets mountains near the meadow where the California Department of Water Resources conducts the third media snow survey of the 2026 season at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, Feb. 27, 2026.

The prolific snowfall that blanketed the Sierra Nevada in February did little to bolster the season’s overall snowpack totals, water resource officials said. 

On Friday, the Department of Water Resources released the results of its third snow survey of the season, conducted at the Phillips Station near South Lake Tahoe. While numbers were up from the previous survey, which recorded dismal lows, the snowpack has a long way to go to catch up to a normal winter. 

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“The manual survey recorded 28 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent of 11 inches, which is 47 percent of average for this location,” DWR said in a statement. The snowpack for California as a whole was at 66% of average, the release said. 

“Unfortunately, the recent storms were not enough to get the state back to average conditions for this time of year. Warmer storms early this week also caused snowmelt at lower........

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