California’s snowpack is now below average for this time of the year following a dry January, a dramatic turn from the previous month when the Sierra Nevada was inundated with record amounts of snow.

As of Tuesday, the snow water content measured 90 to 95% of normal across the Sierra range, with the statewide average hovering around 92%, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

The new figures reveal a staggering reversal from the end of December, when the state’s ever-dwindling snowpack was replenished by a barrage of storms that brought record-setting snow to parts of the Sierra.

During the season’s first snowpack survey, conducted at Phillips Station on Dec. 30, the snow water equivalent was found to be roughly 160% of normal for the end of the year — the highest figure measured for that time in over a decade.

You can see the difference between the northern, central and southern Sierra between the end of December and today in the figure 1.1.

The shrinking amount of water was due to an exceptionally dry January, a month that is traditionally among the wettest in California.

“Amid record-dry Jan across portions of Sierra Nevada, California snowpack has now fallen below avg for date–remarkable given it was ~160% of avg for date in late Dec!” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, tweeted Monday .

With dry conditions expected to persist over the next two weeks, Swain said the percentages will continue their precipitous decline.

Swain also noted that it’s not just the lack of rain and snow alone that is causing the snow water content to deplete: “It has also been much warmer and sunnier than usual at high elevations in Jan–leading to substantial mid-winter snowmelt (so there is active loss of snowpack, not just stalling of growth),” he tweeted .

The snowpack provides about about a third of California’s water supply once it melts and runs into reservoirs, which is why the numbers are so critical.

The latest federal drought monitor map continues to show California is mired in drought, with almost two-thirds of the state experiencing severe drought. Still, that represents a vast improvement from about six weeks ago, when about 80% of the state was in one of the two worst drought categories — exceptional or extreme.

“We are definitely still in a drought. A completely dry January shows how quickly surpluses can disappear,” DWR Director Karla Nemeth said in a statement after the department conducted its second snowpack survey of this winter. “The variability of California weather proves that nothing is guaranteed and further emphasizes the need to conserve and continue preparing for a possible third dry year.”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The water content of California’s Sierra Nevada snowpack was measured at 59% of the April 1 average, when it historically is at its peak, the state’s chief of snow surveys and water supply forecasting said Thursday.

The unsurprising result follows the second consecutive dry winter and comes amid indicators that California is entering another drought just a few years after a five-year dry spell.

Overall, the state has received only about 50% of average precipitation in the current water year and its major reservoirs are only about half full, said Sean de Guzman of the Department of Water Resources.

“It’s currently tied for the third-driest year on record,” de Guzman said during a briefing at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, where manual measurements have been made since 1941. The Sierra-wide measurement is made by sensors at 260 locations.

The snowpack normally supplies about 30% of California’s water. How much of the current snowpack ends up in reservoirs remains to be seen.

De Guzman said the latest runoff forecasts around 58% of average, slightly under last year’s number.

“As the snowpack starts to melt the big unknowns are how dry are the soils beneath the snowpack and how much water will absorb into those soils before running off into our rivers and streams,” de Guzman said. “The next few weeks are just really critical to watch to see how much of that snowmelt will enter into our reservoirs.”

De Guzman said it was somewhat of an anomaly for the state to have received more snow than rain, a result of colder storms.

The snow that did fall favored the northern and central Sierra over the southern end of the range, which runs for hundreds of miles along the California-Nevada state line.

At Phillips Station, de Guzman measured a snow depth of 49.5 inches (1.26 meters) and a snow water content of 21 inches (53 centimeters) which translates to 83% of average for the location.

During the 2012-2016 drought, then-Gov. Jerry Brown watched as a measuring device was placed in a snowless field of grass at Phillips Station and took the drastic step of ordering a 25% reduction in water use.

While the Department of Water Resources characterizes the current year as “critically” dry, California is better positioned than it was back then.

“Even though we have drought-like conditions, Californians as a whole have actually been conserving a lot more water compared to where we were before 2012 when the previous drought started,” de Guzman said. “A lot of the public has continued their effort which is a great sign and we need to keep continuing to do that.”

The season’s final snow survey will be conducted on April 29.

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