… By Jan. 6, with umbrellas and snow shovels getting a workout, the statewide Sierra Nevada snowpack was a respectable 93% of its historical average. But in the three weeks since, the switch has flipped. Sunny and warm weather has been the norm throughout most of California. On Thursday, the Sierra snowpack had fallen to just 59% of its historical average. … But it’s not as bad as it seems, experts said Thursday. … Between mid-December and early January, the state’s largest reservoir, Shasta — a massive 35-mile-long lake near Redding — rose by 36 feet. The second-largest, Oroville in Butte County, rose 69 feet over the same three weeks. They have even more water in them now, and are still rising.

Other snowpack news around the West:

• KUNM (Albuquerque, N.M.): Poor Colorado River snowpack will put pressure on New Mexico
• NBC9 (Denver, Colo.): Colorado’s snow drought creates economic challenges for ski resorts, local businesses
• Aspen Journalism (Colo.): Real time snowpack in the Roaring Fork basin