Winter is off to a promising start for California water managers. A handful of storms in late fall and over the holidays primed the state’s mountains with a solid base of snow, with such high-elevation spots as the Truckee River basin,

California is beginning 2025 with a solid start to the winter snowpack, officials said Thursday, but they cautioned that more storms are needed to keep the state's water supplies on track. Officials at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada,

California’s first snowpack measurement of 2025 on Thursday showed promising figures for the water year, complemented by high storage levels in some of the state’s most critical reservoirs. However, uneven snow distribution across the Sierra Nevada highlighted lingering concerns as the state moves into its peak precipitation season.