The recent dose of foul weather has raised the spirits of California's water lords, but measurements taken Wednesday in the Sierra Nevada show there is still not enough snow to ease drought conditions.

The ritual trek into the snowy wilderness to survey the state's frozen water supply found less snow than normal for this time of year in the Sierra, but more than last year.

"What we're finding this year is really pretty close to last year," said Frank Gehrke, chief of snow surveys for the California Department of Water Resources, after finishing the last measurement at historic Phillips Station, next to the Sierra-at-Tahoe resort off Highway 50. "It's a little lower in the north. It gets better as we go south, but we've got a lot of winter left. Everything depends on what happens between now and April."

The water content of the snow - the key measurement for how much water will flow into reservoirs - is 85 percent of normal for this date, according to the average of five measurements. It was 76 percent of normal last year.

The measurement in a field covered in a blanket of white near the privately owned cabin known as Phillips Station is traditionally where the department announces the results of the first snow survey of the season. The spot, at 6,800 feet, normally represents the median of the five spots where snowpack is measured. This year was no different.

Water content was 75 percent of normal at Phillips. The lowest measurement was at Echo Summit, where water content was 57 percent of normal. At Lake Audrain it was 91 percent of normal, Gehrke said.

The winter snowpack in the Sierra is not only important to skiers and snowboarders, it is an essential part of the state's water supply. Up to 60 percent of the state's water is contained in the Sierra snowpack. When it melts in the spring and summer, the water is used to irrigate millions of acres of farmland and quench the thirst of California's 36 million people. About a quarter of the state's power comes from hydroelectric plants that count on heavy mountain runoff.

The measurements - conducted every month in the same locations between January and May for the past 65 years - are used to determine the water supply for the coming year. They are particularly important this year because California is facing the prospect of a fourth straight year of drought. Meanwhile the water system is being taxed by a booming state population, aging infrastructure, ongoing environmental battles and restrictions on water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to protect endangered fish.

Right now, Lake Oroville, the primary storage reservoir for the State Water Project, is at 29 percent of capacity and 47 percent of average for this time of year, water resources officials said. If things don't improve, they said, only 5 percent of the water requested by Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and Southern California farms and cities will be delivered.

One good thing, according to Gehrke, is that the storm-causing condition known as El Niño is in effect. Weather forecasters are nevertheless worried that a high-pressure system could form as it did the past two winters and block precipitation.

Regardless of what happens, Gehrke said it is unlikely California will recover from three years of drought this year. To accomplish that, he said, California would have to have "a real humongous year or a series of above average years" of rain and snow.

Last year is a good example of how fickle Mother Nature has become. The eighth-driest January on record was followed by big Sierra storms. Then warm, dry weather in April melted the snowpack. By May, the water content was 66 percent of normal, prompting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a statewide drought emergency.

All anybody can do now, Gehrke said, is hope the storms keep coming.

"I'm encouraged because we have snow on the ground," Gehrke said. "Even though we don't have a whole lot, it's important that we start out with something."