California’s Department of Water Resources said Thursday its latest survey shows the Sierra Nevada snowpack is still well below normal — which is bad news for the drought-stricken state.

The survey was done as the first of two back-to-back Pacific storms lightly blanketed the Sierra with fresh snow.

The department said manual and electronic readings show the snowpack’s statewide water content at 24 percent of average for the date.

“It’s just a reflection of the fact that what storms do come through are fairly modest,” snow survey chief Frank Gehrke said. “And then the blocking high-pressure ridge sets back in almost as soon as they’ve left the state.”

The northern and central Sierra snowpack provides about a third of California’s water supply.

More snow is expected from the week’s second and more powerful storm, which is expected to arrive late Thursday and last into Saturday.

Gehrke said such storms are still far from enough to end the drought.

“We’d need 15 or 20 of them — and that’s just not in the cards,” he said.

Rainwater streamed across the parking lot and down the boat ramp at Folsom Lake on Thursday afternoon.

The lake level has risen by more than 6 inches in the past 48 hours, but the reservoir remains about 70 percent empty.

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