A winter snowstorm this weekend dumped nearly 40 inches of snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains from Sunday into Monday, breaking the record for snowfall in December, and possibly signaling relief in California’s two-year-old drought.
The storm brought the total snowfall recorded in December to 193.7 inches and forced the closure of resorts near Lake Tahoe, which had been bone dry as recently as Thanksgiving weekend but now have more snow than they can handle.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
On Monday, the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, located northwest of Lake Tahoe at Donner Pass, recorded 38.9 inches of snowfall over the previous 24 hours — bringing the monthly total to 193.7 inches so far for December. The previous December record was in 1970, with 179 inches of snow.
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“We smashed the snowfall record for December, which is crazy because it didn’t start snowing until about three weeks ago, and we didn’t have any snow for six weeks prior to that,” [OpenSnow forecaster Brian] Allegretto said.
After receiving huge early-season snow dumps at the end of October, Tahoe was hit with a warm, dry spell in November that kept the mountains around Tahoe all but dirt bare.
This month’s mammoth snowstorms also helped bolster California’s snowpack: The state increased its snowpack average from 18% on Dec. 1 to 153% through Monday, according to state data.
Snow continued into the week, with storms Monday and Tuesday, and possibly on Friday as well, the last day of December.
Other mountainous parts of California, including the mountains north of San Bernardino, have received heavy snowfall this week, bringing a late “white Christmas” to the higher elevations in the state, and much-needed rain below.
Since the wet winters of 2017-2018, California has suffered a severe drought, akin to the drought from 2011-2017. Water users already faced increasing restrictions, and residential users may be required to ration use unless the state’s reservoirs and snowpack can recover.
Though California has failed to invest in water storage throughout its largely dry decade, the unexpected winter storms bring hope that 2022, at least, might be less dry and that the drought could yet be broken.
Pictured above: The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab in Soda Springs surpassed the previous record of 179 inches of snow set in December 1970 with a new total of 194 inches. Image: Press Las Vegas
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It may be that California has chosen to be the poster child for climate change. With its Mediterranean weather and the mountainous terrain, it’s one big Instagram factory. Don’t cut firebreaks, don’t create reservoirs with dams, don’t irrigate crops, don’t ever ever let Lake Meade fill up. Keep the climate misery alive!
also, they continue to discharge millions of acre-feet into the ocean to save a tiny non-indigenous smelt which likely hasn’t existed in the last 20 years
We here in Siskiyou County and Scott Valley got Snow for Christmas this year lots of snow we had a White Christmas something those Divest in Fossil Fuels idiots need to get
heh heh heh
I remember just a couple weeks ago when the rains began to fall, that almost every newspaper and news media outlet were pooh-poohing the impact on the drought saying it wasn’t even going to make a dent in the drought, because newsom was pushing new water use restrictions.
One prediction I saw (24 hours ago) for southern California was for snow down to 1,000 feet elevation. Now that will be “fun” – who in sunny SoCal carries snow chains?
Friday, January 4, 1974. Snow at 2,600 feet in the Banning pass – 16 inches. It closed down Intestate 10 for 24 hours. (We lived 200 yards from I-10 in Beaumont – darn it was quiet.)
It wasn’t too long ago that Atlanta was paralysed by 2″ of snow.