Photo: Andrew Miller//Mammoth Mountain
“Miracle March” is a phrase that’s been thrown around a lot out West the past month. It seems like every time we took a moment to breathe there was news of a new storm making its way over the Pacific, and it was enough to forget that much of this past winter had felt entirely different. We’ll see just how miraculous the month was when California’s Department of Water Resources conducts its official April 1 snowpack survey, but the preliminary measurements as March winds down show that the Sierra Nevada range should hit 90 percent of its average — a solid recovery after a slow start to winter.
“This will be the third year in a row that the snowpack conditions at the start of April are near or above the average,” said Andy Reising, manager of the DWR’s Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit.
This year’s measurements will fall below average for the first time since 2022, but the stretch that includes winters for 2023, 2024, and now 2025 all trend up significantly. That 2022 winter saw California’s snowpack drop to 38 percent of its historical average. So this winter’s climb near average caps off a positive shift with even more snow on the way as April starts.
“It’s great news that our state’s snowpack has recovered from several weeks of extremely dry conditions in the heart of our winter storm season,” said Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth. “However, it’s not a wet year across the entire Sierra Nevada.”
Nemeth’s comment reflects the disparity from North to South along the Sierra range. The Central and Southern Sierra range sit at 83 percent and 81 percent respectively, with the Northern Sierra well above 100 percent on March 1. Overall, the statewide snowpack was at 85 percent on March 1. On February 1, the statewide snowpack was 65 percent of its average to date and just 40 percent of its April 1 average, so it’s safe to say winter went out with a bang on the West Coast.
