About 17 meters of snow in Sierra Nevada, California, is breaking records, but it's not enough.

Since Tuesday, more than 5.2 feet [5.2 m] had fallen so far at the Central Bora Laboratory of the University of California, east of Sacramento.

Scientists in the laboratory said this month is now the snowiest December registered at this location and the third month with mostly snow in general. The best month was January 2017, when it fell 20 feet [6 m] and it is unlikely to snow enough in the next three days to challenge that record. The data here is back in 1970.

Lab officials said the snow was “deep and difficult to pass”, and it took them about 40 minutes to reach the location where the measurements were received, just 150 meters from the lab's front door.

It's a ton of snow and it was very necessary, but Andrew. Schwarz, chief scientist and snow lab manager in Sierra, said they would need more.

“While this event has been amazing so far, we are really concerned that the coming months will not have so much storm. If we don't get another centimeter, we're still under what we'd expect for the entire winter, which means we can contribute to the drought instead of solving it”, Schwarz told CNN.

The high - altitude snow package serves as a natural reservoir that alleviates drought, preserving water during winter months, and slowly releasing it during the melting season - spring. The snowpack in Sierra Nevada makes up 30 percent of California's fresh water supply in an average year, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The gathering of snow in Sierra was at alarming low levels at the end of last winter, and the reservoirs, which are replenished by the melting of snow in the spring, are still below the historical average.