It’s official: California Sierra snowpack ties all-time record

California water officers are gathering at Echo Summit south of Lake Tahoe this morning for a high-profile snowpack studying, which is predicted to verify what a military of snow-sensors scattered throughout the Sierra already present; the statewide snowpack is tied with 1952 as the largest haul since official data started in 1950.

On Monday, the statewide snowpack reached an astonishing 237% of regular in comparison with historic information for this date. The record-tying snowpack is a surprising turnaround from a 12 months in the past, when the official April snowpack measure was one of many lowest readings ever, at simply 35% of regular.

Technically Monday’s snowpack studying got here two days after April 1 — the everyday date towards which snowpack readings are in contrast. On April 1, the statewide snowpack measure was at 233% of regular, which was just a few proportion factors shy of the 1952 file.

No matter the way you measure it although, the huge bounty is nice information for the drought, which has led to a lot of the Golden State. Round a 3rd of California’s water provide comes from melting snowpack.

However many consultants are expressing rising concern that heat temperatures within the Sierra this spring might set off cataclysmic flooding. They’re significantly apprehensive about snowmelt-fueled flooding within the Southern Sierra, the place the snowpack was at a record-breaking 306% of regular on Monday.

“When you rise up above some stage, you might be largely involved with how briskly it melts moderately than how huge is the snowpack,” mentioned Jay Lund, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Davis. “If we get an actual heat spell that comes by way of and melts all of it actual quick, you’ll see rather more flooding potential.”

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