There is a silver lining to all the storms this month. The California Department of Water Resources has done its first snow survey of the season in the mountains and found that the higher elevation snow has boosted the snowpack to around half its normal for this time of year. Water managers say that’s encouraging news because the snowpack that eventually provides water to reservoirs has been lagging so far this year. We’re at the start of the most critical time of the year for enough snow to prevent supply problems in the summer.