Photo: Johannes Waibel/Unsplash
A weekend storm just set a Sierra Nevada record for the snowiest day of the past season. Although we are technically almost two months removed from the 2023-2024 winter, Sunday saw 26.4 inches of fresh snow (67 cm). That number was just over two and a half inches more than the previous record day on March 3.
The University of California, Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab pointed to the irony on Twitter, asking “Did anyone have the snowiest day of the 2023-2024 season being in May on their winter bingo card?” The lab also reported that the fresh snow bumped the snow water equivalent up to 157 percent of its May 5 average.
5/5/24 9:35am Update:
Did anyone have the snowiest day of the 2023/2024 season being in May on their winter bingo card?This storm dropped 26.4″ (67 cm) in the last day, making May 5th the snowiest day of the season at the lab. It beat 2nd place (March 3rd) by 2.6″ (6.5 cm)! pic.twitter.com/iEg01CyabX
— UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab (@UCB_CSSL) May 5, 2024
Meanwhile. NASA put the storm’s temporary impact into perspective by sharing satellite images of the West Coast on May 3 and on May 5. Snow coverage is noticeably greater throughout the Sierra range in the May 5 image as well as throughout much of Nevada.
Satellite images showing California’s snow coverage on May 3 (left) and May 5 (right). Photo: NASA
“Sierra Nevada snowpack is known for its booms and busts. After more than a decade of either unusually wet or unusually dry years, snowpack in the Sierras has been uncharacteristically close to average in 2024,” NASA’s Earth Observatory website wrote. “Prior to the early-May storm, accumulated snowfall for the current water year at Donner Pass was within one inch of the 1991-2020 average (360 inches), according to the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory. The snow on May 5 nudged the total to 108 percent of the average for that location.”
