March brought few storms and little snow to the Sierra, leaving the snowpack below average to date, officials said. Though spring storms could still add to the snow totals, April typically signals an end to the peak snow season. As of Tuesday, the snowpack in the Lake Tahoe basin was 87 percent of average for the date, according to the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service. The numbers are still better than last year, when April arrived with a Sierra snowpack at less than half of what it should be. After a slow start, back-to-back storms in January blanketed the Sierra, boosting the snowpack to well-above-average levels.

As recently as late February, the Tahoe Basin snowpack was at more than 115 percent of average.  But March — typically the fourth largest month for snowfall — produced Sierra snow for only few days. While winter didn’t erase the deficit from a seriously dry 2007, there shouldn’t be any major problems with water supplies, officials said. Lake Tahoe — the river system’s largest reservoir — should rise at least a foot between now and late June, said Bill Hauck, water supply coordinator for the Truckee Meadows Water Authority.