Dry Conditions In California Reduce Sierra Nevada Snowpack

The Sierra Nevada snowpack has fallen below normal levels after California experienced its driest two-month period on record.

The Department of Water Resources says scientists found snowpack water content averaging only 67 percent of normal throughout the 400-mile-long mountain range.

Levels were 88 percent of normal in the northern Sierra and about 60 percent of normal in the central and southern regions.

Scientists measured 3.3 inches of snow in a meadow just south of Lake Tahoe on Thursday. That's only 11 percent of what is expected there at this time of year.

Frank Gehrke, the snow survey chief at California's Department of Water Resources, says dry, sunny conditions in March and April melted what was an average snowpack earlier this year.