this is a pretty stunning example of
just how little snow we’ve had this
season we’ve got a you know a patch here
and a few patches up in the trees but in
a normal year we’re at about 6,000 feet
in the Sierra mid-february we should
first of all we should be on on skis and
not walking and there should be three to
four feet of snow at this location we’re
basically looking at virtually a dry
watershed at this point we depend upon
the snowpack to act as a gigantic
reservoir that in ordinary years
accumulates during the fall and winter
and then gradually melts off in the
spring and summer and we punishes the
water that we’ve taken out of the
constructed reservoirs the dilemma that
we’re facing this year is with such a
sparse snowpack and lack of
precipitation throughout the season
already our reservoir storage is already
about three-quarters of what it should
be normally we would be under water here
and the top of the lake would be above
the top of that point behind us the lake
is very important for not only providing
water for the local communities around
but it also provides a habitat for the
fisheries downstream and helps balance
the salinity in the San Joaquin Delta
the concept of an atmospheric River is
where you have a Arctic or a cold air
mass that in trains or brings moisture
up from the tropics and if you look on a
satellite or you know a radar detection
it’s as though there was a massive river
directed at the west coast and it can
bring phenomenal amounts of
precipitation in a very short period of
time November and December of 2012 we
had a couple large atmospheric River
events and had us on a strong start to
the water year with the new year of 2013
that stopped and we proceeded to have
the driest calendar year in 120 years
climate is extremely variable so we have
prolonged droughts you know over a
decade or several decades and in some
cases over a century and then we there’s
alternating with periods where it’s much
wetter and we have big floods because
we’ve we see a recurring pattern of
droughts over the last few thousand
years we can predict that they probably
will recur again and we may even have
entered one the lack of snow pack as we
move through the season is going to
create real problems come the summer and
the hot weather when we’re coming into
this year with a soil moisture deficit
and as we don’t accumulate don’t replace
that then this coming summer it can be
pretty pretty grim
you
just how little snow we’ve had this
season we’ve got a you know a patch here
and a few patches up in the trees but in
a normal year we’re at about 6,000 feet
in the Sierra mid-february we should
first of all we should be on on skis and
not walking and there should be three to
four feet of snow at this location we’re
basically looking at virtually a dry
watershed at this point we depend upon
the snowpack to act as a gigantic
reservoir that in ordinary years
accumulates during the fall and winter
and then gradually melts off in the
spring and summer and we punishes the
water that we’ve taken out of the
constructed reservoirs the dilemma that
we’re facing this year is with such a
sparse snowpack and lack of
precipitation throughout the season
already our reservoir storage is already
about three-quarters of what it should
be normally we would be under water here
and the top of the lake would be above
the top of that point behind us the lake
is very important for not only providing
water for the local communities around
but it also provides a habitat for the
fisheries downstream and helps balance
the salinity in the San Joaquin Delta
the concept of an atmospheric River is
where you have a Arctic or a cold air
mass that in trains or brings moisture
up from the tropics and if you look on a
satellite or you know a radar detection
it’s as though there was a massive river
directed at the west coast and it can
bring phenomenal amounts of
precipitation in a very short period of
time November and December of 2012 we
had a couple large atmospheric River
events and had us on a strong start to
the water year with the new year of 2013
that stopped and we proceeded to have
the driest calendar year in 120 years
climate is extremely variable so we have
prolonged droughts you know over a
decade or several decades and in some
cases over a century and then we there’s
alternating with periods where it’s much
wetter and we have big floods because
we’ve we see a recurring pattern of
droughts over the last few thousand
years we can predict that they probably
will recur again and we may even have
entered one the lack of snow pack as we
move through the season is going to
create real problems come the summer and
the hot weather when we’re coming into
this year with a soil moisture deficit
and as we don’t accumulate don’t replace
that then this coming summer it can be
pretty pretty grim
you
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