"Physically it looked good," said Frank Gehrke, chief of the state snow survey, "But the snow was pretty thin."

The snow was only 15.6 inches deep and held only 3.8 inches of water - 19 percent of normal for this time of year.

The measurement at Philips Station was one of 104 snow courses checked Wednesday in the mountains of California, and the results were grim all over - the water content in the snowpack is only 37 percent of what is normal for the beginning of February.

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