Jobs Peak on Monday at what is likely to be very nearly its snowiest this season before the spring meltoff.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
The central Sierra Nevada experienced the fourth warmest winter on record, according to Western Regional Climate Center researcher Dan McEvoy of the Desert Research Institute.
McEvoy discussed the past winter during Monday’s California-Nevada Drought & Climate Outlook Webinar.
But like last year, late winter weather helped shore up the snowpack in the upper elevations, though it didn’t help much in lower areas.
“The Sierra got a lot of precipitation in March and below normal temperatures for most of the region which is a good thing for this time of year,” McEvoy said. “We are nearing the peak snow-water equivalent that occurs April 1, and so we’re moving into snowmelt season. It’s critical to get as close as we can to that number. We’ve been chasing near average snowpack for much of the season.”
Last winter’s roughly 39-degree mean wasn’t nearly as warm as 2015, when the mean temperature approached 41 degrees during December, January and February. The next warmest year was 2014, where the mean approached 40 degrees.
As of midnight Friday, the snow pillow in the central Sierra is running 89 percent of its April 1 average, which is when irrigation season starts. McEvoy said that is very similar to where the snowpack was last year, thanks mostly to the storms that arrived in February and March. But last year also saw more snow at lower elevations.
McEvoy cited a federal snow survey taken at the Central Sierra Snow Lab on March 19 under the direction of Dr. Anne Heggli that found that lower levels of the 112 inches of snow were very close to melting, with a cap of colder snow.
“Most of that snow is getting ready to melt as we get into snowmelt season,” he said.
The National Weather Service has issued a hydrologic outlook in the Great Basin as a result of near record warm temperatures which will increase the melt rate of mid and high elevations snowpack this week in Humboldt and Elko counties. The Carson River leaving Douglas County is forecast to crest at 3.6 feet on Thursday evening, below half of the action stage.
The West Fork of the Carson River at Woodfords is forecast to crest a foot below the 12.5-foot action stage early Wednesday morning. Carson Pass, at the top of the tributary, is at 94 percent of median snow water equivalent as of midnight Monday.
Ebbetts Pass at the top of the East Fork is running 81 percent. The East Fork entering Carson Valley is forecast to crest at 10.6 feet on Wednesday night, well below action stage.