Packing it in: Sierra snow level hasn’t been this deep in 40 years, official survey reveals

December storms have provided the Sierra Nevada snowpack with some of the highest preliminary snow levels in 40 years, according to the California Department of Water Resources’ first snow survey of the season in South Lake Tahoe.

Results from the state’s manual snow survey revealed that the area near Phillips Station, one of the 260 spots the department samples multiple times a year, has a snow depth of 55.5 inches and a water content of 17.5 inches.