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Lake Tahoe weather: Recent snowstorm great for skiers, not so great for snow pack, lake level

Posted by: Maven on December 9, 2009 at 8:03 am

lake tahoe snowFrom the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza:

“LAKE TAHOE — Light, fluffy snow may be great for those on the slopes, but hydrologists look for wetter, denser white stuff when it comes to raising Lake Tahoe’s level.

“When you get out into this powder that sinks up to your waist when you step in it, that’s great,” said Dan Greenlee, Water Supply Specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. “It’s really the wet sloppy Sierra cement that we want for our water supply and feeding Lake Tahoe next summer.”

The 30 inches of snow that fell during this past weekend’s storm was only 6.5 percent water by volume, said Randall Osterhuber of the Central Sierra Snow Lab on Donner Summit.

“If you think of a very cold storm, there just is not as much water in the system as there might be in a warmer system,” said Frank Gehrke, Chief of California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program. … “

Read more from the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza by clicking here.

Photo credit: Laurel Owen, U.S. Forest Service

December 9, 2009 · Filed Under Lake Tahoe, the Sierras & foothills

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