The State - News from April 4, 1989

The southern Sierra’s spring snow runoff is expected to be below normal for the third straight year. “It’s a lot better than last year, but still a lot less than we need,” Ranger Laurel Munsen of the National Park Service said. Officials who conducted a three-day survey of the snowpack in seven areas of Yosemite National Park last week announced that prospects for the spring runoff appeared grim. The April 1 snow survey is used to make major forecasts for the April-to-July snowmelt runoff from the park. At Ostrander Lake, at the 8,200-foot level, the water content of the snowpack was 26.2 inches, the best in three years but still well below the normal 33.7 inches. Similar findings were found at the other six survey points in the park, surveyors said.