Topline
A series of winter snowstorms have offloaded more than 700 inches of snow on California’s Sierra Nevada mountains since the beginning of October, making this winter the second snowiest on record, a hopeful sign amid a years-long drought, with more stormy weather on the way.
The Sierra Nevada mountains have picked up more than 58 feet of snow this season, the second most of … [+]
Key Facts
Nearly three feet of snowfall over the past 24 hours brought the University of California Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab to 713.8 inches (nearly 60 feet) of snowfall this season.
Recent snowfall—which has triggered avalanches and flooding and nearly buried buildings in snow drift—brings this season’s total at the snow lab in Donner Pass to within 100 inches of the all-time record of 812 inches (67 feet) recorded in 1952.
The snowstorms coincide with more than a dozen so-called atmospheric rivers—long narrow storm systems meteorologists say can carry the same amount of rain as the amount of water flowing through the mouth of the Mississippi River—that have hammered California this year, in what forecasters have called a “relentless parade of cyclones.”
While those storms have caused widespread coastal flooding, erosion, mudslides and avalanches in high-elevation areas, they have also been a godsend for drought-ridden areas throughout the state.
Forecasters expect more snow in the mountains today, with a winter storm warning in effect, while another storm is expected this weekend and early next week.
Surprising Fact
Heavy rainfall has also refilled southern California’s Tulare Lake, the one-time largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, which had been drained throughout the 1800s as California’s agricultural industry exploded, the Los Angeles Times reported. The lake, 50 miles south of Fresno, had not been filled since 1997. State officials this week also started refilling Diamond Valley Lake, southern California’s largest reservoir, for the first time in three years.
Tangent
More than half of California is now out of drought, while areas that had been in severe and extreme droughts have been downgraded to moderate and abnormally dry levels, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. The entire state of California had been in a drought late last year, as part of a years-long “megadrought” affecting the southwestern U.S. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles estimate the drought was the region’s worst in 1,200 years, according to a February study.
Further Reading
Parts Of California Out Of Drought—But Experts Still Warn Drought Conditions Will Remain (Forbes)
Second Snowiest Season on Record at Central Sierra Snow Lab (NBC Bay Area)
Nearly Half Of California Out Of Drought Following Record Snow—But Years-Long Dry Spell Isn’t Over Yet (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/03/29/700-inches-of-snow-sierra-nevadas-face-2nd-snowiest-season-on-record-stemming-brutal-california-drought/