Snowfall in California mountains smashes previous records

[kenl01]

Apr 9,2006

At the end of last week, California ’s Mammoth ski resort announced that an astounding 632 inches (16 meters) of snow had fallen since October. The previous record was set in 1992/93 when the resort received 617 inches of snow from October to early spring. Average snowfall in a typical
season is around 400 inches, making this years snowfall some 200 inches more than usual.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/news ... news.shtml

[bob rulz]

And the storms just keep coming there. It will be interesting to see how much snow they end up with.

But definitely an impressive record. Shows just how unusual this winter was...

[weatherlover427]

That's over 52 feet of snow. Amazing stuff. And yes, more snow is possible over the next week.

[Aslkahuna]

That statement is incorrect. Mammoth has set a record but I've seen nothing that suggest that Tahoe, Squaw Valley. Kirkwood, Boreal, Donner, Shasta, etc. have set seasonal records and in fact in the case of Kirkwood they are below their all time the last I looked. The record snowfall for the Sierra Crest is 887 inches and I don't think anyone is close to that. The record snowfall was for the month of March as it was the snowiest March in the Sierra on average with an average snowfall of a bit under 20' but the season total is only around 60' for the crest which is below the records. Because of warm storms earlier in the season which settled the pack and loaded it the water content of the snowpack is high which will be good for water interests.

Steve

[kenl01]

A similar report on March 30th:

Ski resort reports record snow - Alpine Meadows ski resort at Lake Tahoe reports more snowfall than during any other month in 35 years.
The resort has received more than 16 feet of snow at its base lodge since March 1, and more than 22 feet of snow midway up the mountain.
That's a record. It surpasses the previous high of 15.6 feet that fell at Alpine during the "Miracle March" of 1991, and the most snowfall for a single month since 1970.
Other areas have seen much the same. At Tahoe City , nearly 6.8 feet of snow has fallen since March 1, making it the fourth snowiest March since 1931. More snow is likely on Friday.
"There's been a huge increase. It's dramatically improved the snowpack," said Gary Barbato, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Reno .
The change was particularly remarkable in some lower elevations of the Sierra, Barbato said. At Fallen Leaf Lake near South Lake Tahoe, for example, the snowpack went from 39 percent of average on March 1 to 166 percent on Wednesday. ( Reno Gazette Journal)
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic ... 00345/1002

March 6th
Snow in the desert - The latest in a series of Pacific storms has brought snow to desert areas of California and Nevada and to low levels in the San Francisco Bay Area, forcing closure of some roads. The hills around Los Angeles and San Diego also saw a covering of snow on Friday.
Carson City, Nevada received 15-25cm (6-10 inches) of snow, and Las Vegas could receive up to five inches by the end of the weekend.
A series of storms have dumped up to 3.4 meters (11 feet) of snow in parts of the Sierra Nevada range above Lake Tahoe in the last ten days. This compares to the average snowfall for the entire month of March of only 2.3m (7.5ft). Overall, the snowpack in the California/Nevada Walker River basin currently stands at 137% of normal.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/news ... news.shtml