A team from the California Department of Water Resources will travel into the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday, January second to conduct this winter's first snow survey.
The manual survey is set for 11 a.m. along Highway 50 near Echo Summit.
The team will take a core sample by pushing a long metal tube down into the snow that has piled up this season.
Then they will measure the weight of the snow to determine it's water content.
Compared to the dismal snowpack California had at the same time last year, this season is off to a great start.
Several storms over the past few weeks have boosted the state's snowpack water content to about 146-percent of the normal to date as measured by automated gauges.
The really important thing about snowpack as far as the state's water supply is concerned is the water content of snow.
Not all snow is created equal.
Snow that forms and falls in very cold air has less water in it than snow that falls in relatively warmer air.
So while the powdery snow that piles so high during extremely cold storms may be fantastic for skiers and snowboarders, it's not so great for the California's water supply.
Snowpack normally provides about one-third of the water for the state's households, farms and industries as it melts slowly through the spring and early summer.
