Chairlifts were buried across the mountain after the last storm. Photo: Mammoth Mountain
Every week brings us a new angle on the exceptional winter we’ve had on the West Coast. From several feet of powder dumping in 24-hour periods to snow so deep it’s buried chairlifts or record season snow totals at resorts in Utah, California, you name it. And there’s still no end in sight now that it’s officially spring, with so much snow that many resorts announced they’ll stay open this year well into the summer months. But there’s a flip side to that very same coin…
In California, one particular storm about a month ago brought so much snow in such a short period of time that a warmer, wetter storm days later had weather experts sounding the alarms for flood warnings. The obvious threat was that all that fresh snow at lower elevations would melt and wreak havoc in areas that don’t typically see snow at all. And now that spring is here, State Officials are talking about a similar “big melt” for the Golden State’s historic snowpack.
“As that record southern Sierra snowpack melts in the days and weeks to come — and it is going to do that between now and June — most of it is going to melt and flow downhill,” said UCLA Climate Scientist Daniel Swain.
How much snow are we talking about? As of Monday, the statewide snowpack was 237 percent of normal for the beginning of April. And California has only topped 200 percent above normal snowpack in three of the past 70 years, according to the Department of Water Resources — 1952, 1969, and 1983. And just how much water are we talking about? Well, it’s reportedly California’s deepest snowpack recorded in more than 70 years, state officials said Monday. And that contains roughly 30 million acre-feet of water, which is more water than all of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S., the LA Times reported.
“The real challenge as we move into spring and summer is flooding — significant flooding — particularly in the Tulare Lake Basin,” DWR director Karla Nemeth told the Times. “There is variability — it does depend how quickly California warms up as to how quickly we will experience the snowmelt, but we are into those longer daylight hours, which can trigger snowmelt at a much more rapid pace.”
In other words, we’ll all still have to wait and watch for the longterm effects of a record winter in California.
