LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – Forecasters expect below normal (median) spring and summer streamflows across Nevada following a winter with rapid melt, reducing the April 1 snowpack to near 2015 record lows in the Eastern Sierra and record low snowpack across northern Nevada.

April broke the March dry spell with precipitation that was twice the normal monthly amount in the Eastern Sierra. Cooler temperatures created significant gains in snow water along the Sierra Crest.

Even with these gains, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) says in its Nevada Water Supply Outlook for May 1, “Unfortunately, the old saying, ‘too little, too late,’ applies to the current water supply outlook.”

The precipitation received in April would have been more beneficial to mountain snowpacks had it come a month earlier, the report explains. Instead, record heat and record snowmelt defined March.

Peak streamflow occurred at least a month earlier than normal due to the record snowmelt.

“Some good news is reservoir storage is better than this time last year in the Eastern Sierra,” the report conveys.

The Truckee Basin and Lake Tahoe are better situated than northern and eastern Nevada, with Tahoe just five inches away from its legal limit and forecasters expecting it to fill.

That bodes well for agriculture in the Truckee and lower Carson basins, NRCS says, allowing for 100% allocation for irrigators.

However, in northern and eastern Nevada, if dry conditions persist, NRCS expects streamflow volumes to likely approach or set new minimum streamflow records for May through July.