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Snow can accumulate through multiple snow events, unless it either slides off or melts in the time between snows. Snow can also partially melt and then refreeze. This will reduce the depth of the snow while making it more dense due to water occupying formerly open space in the accumulated snow.
- Why Are So Many Storms Hitting California?
- How Much Snow Is there?
- Is Climate Change Playing A part?
California’s recent parade of storms is driven by atmospheric rivers — long, narrow plumes of moist air that travel from the tropics to higher latitudes. When these ‘rivers in the sky’ sweep over mountainous regions, they condense into clouds that produce heavy rain and snow, says Allison Michaelis, an atmospheric scientist at Northern Illinois Uni...
In the Sierra Nevada mountain range in eastern California, the season is the snowiest since 1952, says Andrew Schwartz, an atmospheric scientist who leads the University of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab in Donner Pass. “It’s just dumping snow,” he says. A total of 18 metres of snow has fallen at the lab this season, nearly double t...
As the atmosphere warms, atmospheric rivers are likely to become less frequent and hold more moisture, and that will result in heavy downpours of rain and snow, says Schwartz. He notes that California is swinging between wet and dry periods that are more extreme than in the past. “While this variability has always existed, it’s becoming amplified d...
- Gemma Conroy
May 25, 2023 · In four key subregions of California’s snowy mountains, we quantified the progressing contribution of ARs and non-AR storms to the evolving and projected snow accumulation and snowlines (elevation of the snow-to-rain transition), exploring their climatology, variability and trends.
Jun 4, 2021 · As these storms move into California from the west, the wind direction makes a direct strike on the Sierras leading to sharply ascending air and high snowfall rates. If the Pacific storms move in from a more southerly direction, the snowfall can be deeper due to added moisture, but the snow itself will be heavier due to warmer temperatures.
Apr 9, 2023 · MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — Worry and fear are running high in this snowbound Sierra Nevada ski town. Buildings groan and crack under the strain of accumulated snowpack, forcing occupants to flee....
Mar 15, 2023 · In the California mountains right now, it’s the middle elevations that people need to pay attention to. The lower elevations have primarily seen rainfall rather than snow, so there is less snowpack to melt. And in the highest elevations, colder temperatures promote the continued accumulation of deep snowpack and rainfall is less likely.
Jan 2, 2022 · On deep snowpack years, it might hang out until July or August and keep the soil wet, keep the forests moist and, you know, really help us out with our fire danger, which has led to so many...
