Sierra Warming: Later snow, earlier melt: High anxiety

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1499249.html

Sierra Warming: Later snow, earlier melt: High anxiety

By Tom Knudson
[e-mail]
Published: Friday, Dec. 26, 2008 | Page 1A

LAKE TAHOE – Finally, snow.

After weeks of waiting, mountain residents awoke to their first glimpse of winter on Dec. 13, a few fluffy inches of powder that clung to the tops of boulders like chefs' hats.

More fell over the past two weeks, enough to bury the camel-colored meadow grass and wine-red willows in a deepening blanket of white. The magic, though, came late, just days before Christmas – one of the tardiest winter debuts ever.

How much more snow will fall is anyone's guess. A winter storm just hit Thursday, dumping several feet of snow, to the relief of snow-starved resorts. But in the late arrival of this year's snow season – and increasingly early spring snowmelt from the mountains – scientists and state officials are finding more than the signature of a natural drought. They believe they detect the fingerprint of climate change.

The implications could be enormous. After all, the snowcapped Sierra is more than a skier's paradise. It is a giant water faucet in the sky, a 400-mile-long, 60-mile-wide reservoir held in cold storage that supplies California with more than 60 percent of its water, much of it when it's needed most: over the hot, dry summer months.

…

[sam sarrha]

1. a warm rain on a half decent snow pack will turn Sacramento into a Katrina, it will be Totally under

water

we need to set up a Socialist government like our hair were on fire.. we need to do so much so fast we cant keep letting the wealthy Aristocracy bleed 60-70% off the economy with no-value added financial schemes

[TomInTib]

2. Tahoe is rockin', right now.

My GF is an Extreme Skier, and has four really cool vacation rental homes in S Lake Tahoe.

And she is stranded at her parent's in Ohio.

She is so twitchy to hit the slopes, I could almost hear her shaking, on the phone.

As far as I'm concerned, you can have that skiing crap. In middle age, I find no honor in wearing a cast.

But I do like snowy Tahoe, and you can't beat the rates (for us, anyway).

[FirstLight]

3. I have lived here 15 years, and been visiting my whole life

I have seen droughts come & go, and yet....

the past 3-4 winters have been, well, strange

Not just the late coming snow, the huge dumps followed by rain and long periods of NO precipitation..but the look of the mountains as the year goes by. Usually Mt. Tallac has a snowpack until late July-Aug... the past 2-3 years, it looks like that in late April & May. The streams and rivers are running lower longer, and earlier in the season...regardles of the snowmelt.

and the rain, there was NONE, NADA, just a "spit" from May till October...when usually you can set your watch by the September thundershowers and beautiful sunsets. It has been a different place here lately, and yes, I think it is climate change as well. I may not have all the gadgets and years of data, and we can say there are cycles of this over time...BUT after a while as a local, you get a fel for the mountains and how they work. and this is NOT "normal"


Though I suffered my usual bi=polar take on the snow this week (its SOOOO Beautiul! vs. I hate shoveling this SHIT!), I stil have a wait & see atitude, it could all melt away by february. We are supposed to get a warmer storm early next week, and that will just make it melt even faster. maybe it is time to check the status of our raft!