This is just one post in the Drought, Weather & Snowpack Category

Solar cycles and Sierra weather: Are they related?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 18, 2008 at 6:29 am

From the Sierra Sun:

It’s November and skiers and snowboarders are biting at the bit to get out on the slopes. Getting enough natural snowfall in November for skiing is often a challenge in the Sierra, but colder temperatures usually give regional resorts an opportunity to pump out an early base with snowmaking equipment.

At the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory near Donner Pass, November storms are important, as they usually produce more than 10 percent of the average yearly totals, with 48 inches of snow and enough rain to total more than six inches of precipitation. On average, about 75 percent of California’s annual precipitation falls between November and March; half occurs between December and February.

When it comes to weather in the West, averages are hard to come by. More often than not, desiccating droughts are broken by heavy winters, when torrential downpours soak the lower elevations and snow falls thick and deep in the High Sierra. The resulting snowmelt invigorates parched rivers, replenishes empty reservoirs, and resuscitates the withered landscape in a natural cycle as old as the West itself.

Drought-busting seasons come along every so often, but after 100 years, the wild winter of 1906-07 continues to reign as the snowiest on record in the Sierra Nevada. The winter of ’07 ranks as the 10th snowiest on Donner Pass, at just over 7,000 feet. But at the higher elevations the snowfall was epic. Powerful Pacific storms that year buried elevations above 8,000 feet with a snowpack that averaged 30-feet deep, and established California’s greatest seasonal snowfall total of 884 inches — more than 73 feet!

Read more from the Sierra Sun by clicking here.

November 18, 2008 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack, Lake Tahoe & the Sierra's