From The San Francisco Chronicle – The storms that swept across California over the past month have laid down enough snow to bring the Sierra to just shy of its long-term average, providing temporary relief for the nervous Nellies who monitor the state’s frozen water supply. The state’s annual snow surveys, used by the California Department of Water Resources to gauge the drinking water supply for the year, began Thursday and found that the snow water content in the Sierra snowpack is 9.3 inches, or 90% of normal for the new year. That, by all accounts, is pretty good considering earlier predictions of drought. (more)