A series of winter violent storm in California over the Christmas weekend plunge snow all over the Sierra Nevada hatful . This is good weewee news for the upcoming yr following abone - ironical summerthat coif severalworryingnewrecordsfor water scarceness .
California ’s Department of Water Resourcesreported Tuesdaythat snow totals were 145 % of normal for this day of the month in the Northern Sierra Nevadas , 157 % in the Central Sierra Nevadas , and 161 % of normal in the Southern Sierra Nevadas . The snowfall totals for this monthbroke a 50 - year disc in Tahoeby more than 23 inches ( 58 centimeters ): total December snowfall on Monday measured 16 foot and 1.7 inches ( 4.92 meters ) , according to the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab . Of that Charles Percy Snow total , 38.9 inch ( 98.8 centimeters)fell in 24 hour . The vast amount of snow in the sphere means that the Tahoe Basin is currently at 200 % of average for snow water combining weight — the measuring of how much urine would be produced when all the snow melts — for this metre of yr .
coke is hugely important in California . About a third of the state ’s water each year occur from thewinter snowpackin the Sierra Nevadas , which run in the saltation to form runoff that replenishes river , streams , and man-made lake . A below - average snowfall in the wintertime can write big trouble for water availability during the summertime . In April , CalWater reportedthat the Sierra Nevada snowpack was 59 % of normal floor , which was a factor in the record - fracture dry summer this year . It ’s encouraging that the snowpack is off to a strong starting signal this year : according to the Department of Water Resources , all of the snowfall in the state right now already makes up 49 % of the usual April 1 amount .
A person walks along Broad Street in Nevada City, Calif.Photo: Elias Funez/The Union (AP)
blend with somepre - Christmas storms that helped the snowpack mean saltation from 18 % to 98 % , California is having the strongest start to its Water Year — which begins every October 1 — inmore than 40 age . But do n’t keep too soon : one not bad nose candy year does n’t mean that the West ’s dire piddle conditions are all solved . The overallocation of piss in the West combined with rising temperature has led to come crisisthat wo n’t be course rectify with one or two pixilated years .
Even in the sozzled and snow-white conditions , all of California is still currently experiencing at least moderate drought atmospheric condition , harmonise to the U.S. Drought Monitor , with more than 92 % of the state in life-threatening drought and intimately 80 % in exceptional drouth , the second- and third - most severe level . More than 23 % of California , including much of the Agriculture Department - heavy San Joaquin Valley , is still know exceptional drought circumstance — the most serious level of drought . At the height of the 2012 - 2016 drouth crisis , 100 % of the state was in knockout drouth .
Climate modification , too , has a immense postponement on what happen in the Sierra Nevadas . The snowpack in the West has declined by21 % since 1915 , around the equivalent of the capacity ofLake Mead . Arecent studypublished in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment found thatsnowpack in the Sierras could be low or absentfor up to five long time at a time by the recent 2040s if discharge persist in unchecked ; researchers augur that a full decade without snow in the region could legislate by the late 2050s under this scenario . And even in robust Baron Snow of Leicester class , climate change can still wreak havoc : higher temperatures earlier in the leap means the sacking of runoff from the snowpack isearlier and more unpredictable than in the yesteryear , making the management of all that piddle more difficult and guaranteeing more drier months in the summer .
“ It ’s been a pretty telling December , ” Dan McEvoy , regional climatologist for the Western Regional Climate Center , told the Reno Gazette - Journal . “ If I had to emphasize one item , it ’s that the drought ’s not over . We need the storms to continue through the winter . ”
AvalancheCalifornia droughtLake MeadPrecipitationsierra nevadaWater iceWeather
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