“Milder winter temperatures will decrease heavy snowstorms,” says the IPCC in 2001.
Recent snows suggest much for AGW induced snow worries, but still the hype continues:
“Heavy snowstorms are not inconsistent with a warming planet,” said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for www.wunderground.com (source Breitbart)
Heavy snow would be tragic if it weren’t so funny. Memo to Dr. Masters: with the current mindset, nothing is inconsistent with global warming. – Anthony
By Joe D’Aleo, ICECAP
It is called “Miracle March 2011” in the Sierra. At Boreal, near Donner Summit, as of a few days ago, they had received 217 inches this March bringing the seasonal snowfall to 762 inches. The previous record was 662 inches in 1994/95. The recent prolonged storm brought 6-7 feet of snow. The normal for the season is around 400 inches. Their snowbase is between 275 and 375 inches (20-30 feet).
The Snow Water Equivalent is well above normal and bodes well for both agriculture and coastal cities which rely on the melting snow for irrigation and drinking water. There have been battles for decades over how much water the farmers should get to use in the long dry growing season.
As show above, and confirmed below, this wet season has brought over 80 inches of water equivalent to some of the higher terrain.
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Bah! This is Weather, not Climate. Climate is when it gets warmer, Weather is when it snows.
We had a very dry, very pleasant January here in the central Sierras, if we had the snow that came in dec, feb and march, shudder to think. I have to say, when you’re up there looking at all that snow… It’s really spectacular.
Of course, California will still say it is in a drought condition.
I appreciate that California has fantastic growing conditions, but if we’re using sierra-snow-pack water to grow rice in areas too arid for rice and then telling the large population centers they can’t water their lawns, we’re being very dumb (California does this).
Nothing is inconsistent with Global Warming.
“Everything gives you cancer.” – Joe Jackson
Wow, we talk about snow a lot here on WUWT. Greater accumulation is generally a sign of warmer, not cooler climate:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pubs/alley2000/alley2000.gif
And if we around to measure the snowfall during the next glacial period, we will see snow not melting in the late spring and summer, but staying around and providing a based for the next winter snow to accumulate. As it is, our NH snowcover in the late spring and early summer has been declining:
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch4s4-2-2-2.html
It seems AGW skeptics want to point out heavy snowfall in the winter as a sign the world’s not warming, but 100,000 years of ice-core data shows a different story. Now, if snowcover starts to stick around into the late spring and summer months, then we might have something for the skeptics to hang their collective hats on. Generally though, warmer winters can lead to greater snowfall in areas prone to snowfall because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, until such time as the world warms enough that the snow will fall as rain.
I am to old to get any of it but my son says his Burton Joystick is still in full use! As an old Brit living in Cyprus with my lad living in San Fran and going to Lake Tahoe every weekend I can only imagine he is water ski-ing!
Help!
I’ve come to the conclusion that AGW causes male pattern baldness.
Now to go back to grad school and apply for a grant…
I’m not familiar with the spring time pattern of snow melt on the west coast, but in many cases this much snow can lead to catastrophic floods. Is that a concern in this case?
Mike.
I’m waiting to see how they pivot to excessive heat being a sure sign of runaway climate catastrophe after claiming extreme cold and heavy snow are also signs of runaway climate catastrophe. Will they decide to claim moderate weather is also a sure sign of runaway climate catastrophe? I wonder what does not cause runaway climate catastrophe?
OK. Now get ready for the next crisis. Although peoples attention has been focused on the San Andreas fault due to the recent 9.0 quake in Japan, pay attention to the levees in the Sacramento Delta. They’re old, and probably won’t be able to handle the massive amount of snow melt that will be coming off the mountains this year.
I blame CO2 for all the crabgrass in my lawn and the fact I have to cut the fool thing. No CO2, no lawn and no crabgrass. Of course no me either, so I guess I wouldn’t notice.
Massive scientific misconduct is not inconsistent with Global Warming!
While it is not a record, the Rockies that feed into the Colorado River above Lake Powell and Lake Mead are also above average (as are many other parts of the Rockies).
At the USDA site the Upper Colrado River is 126% of normal for today and 115% of the average peak (April 15):
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/reports/UpdateReport.html?report=Colorado&format=SNOTEL+Snowpack+Update+Report
The site at snowpack.water-data.com is reporting 119% for today and 116% of the average peak
http://snowpack.water-data.com/uppercolorado/index.php
Good story. The prediction was less snow. The actual observation is more snow. Whatever else can be said about it, the prediction was wrong.
Lemme see if I’ve got this right, by his thinking, the warmer it gets, the deeper it snows in the mountains… Howzatt?
At this rate there’ll still be some of this year’s snow left on the ground in the fall. And if we can expect a few more years of this, it would seem that a whole bunch of California is warming up to another ice age.
As a local boy who grew up in California’s high Sierra, I can tell you it gets really hard to take the idea of global warming seriously when you’re digging out from under more snow than you’ve ever seen. But there’s a good side too. If you are a fan of places like Yosemite, or Kings Canyon National parks, this year’s spring runnoff also promises amazing water falls the likes of which we’ve never seen as well.
There is some talk that some of the Utah ski resorts may be able to stay open through the 4th of July weekend.
Chris Smith says:
March 29, 2011 at 7:45 am
The total sum of weather IS climate. The components of climate IS weather. It’s all a matter of time frame with critical climatic factors set by weather extremes (temperature minimums and maximums, wind velocities, precipitation amounts, etc.).
Well just wait till you see some other rocket scientist decide to let water go from our very few Califonia reservoirs, to make room for the great runoff we are going to have; and then we will have a prolonged winter/spring, and the water will run normally and those reservoirs will all be empty.
Ok, so Boreal got 200+ % of snowpack.
In 1982-3 winter, Donner Summit got 880″ of snow.
That summer, much of the high country never melted off.
Sounds like a repeat of 82-83 for the Sierra, but the prospect still lies on the table for a repeat of May 1955 flash flood rain hitting it.
Don’t forget that the dam operators are hot to store as much water as they can get away with.
Wow! 94-95 was terrific for skiing. Mammoth was open until August 13 that year. This whole “water shortage” meme which justifies putting thousands of small farmers out of business is reminiscent of the movie “Chinatown”. For those who are not in the know, the central story of Chinatown was loosely based on the history of water use in Los Angeles. Out west, water is money. It is the difference between productive agricultural land and a desert. In the movie the alleged water shortage was being used to force farmers in the San Fernando Valley out of business by depriving them of water.
Now the alleged water shortage, totally created by the federal government, is being used to force small farmers in California’s central valley out of business. And Jeremy, you can’t eat grass. But you can eat rice. A large percentage of the food we eat in this country is grown in the Central Valley of California. And the Western Sierra watershed is more than adequate most years to supply the water needed to grow the crops which include just about every fruit– oranges, kiwis, lemons, peaches, avocados, grapes, many vegetables and even wheat and corn. Nut and fruit trees — which represent an investment that will normally last for years, are dying for lack of water. Yet our representatives look the other way. It isn’t about water. It’s about power. And I’m not talking about electricity. We need another Jake Gittes to find out who is really the beneficiary of this deception.
This is a surprising. Take a look at http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf
(warning: weekly updates)
On pages 32 and 34 is shown the precipitation anomalies during La Niña years (like this year) and freqency of occurence for Feb-Apr and Mar-May. The area near Donner Summit is in an area with fairly high probability of large negative precipitation anamoly during both these time periods. So why is this year different than typical for a La Niña?
So the answer to the global warming problem is right under our noses!
Wake up America, we have to save the world!
http://lwolt.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/i-have-the-answer-the-global-warming-problem/
With all this water coming down into Sacramento river, will they turn on the pumps for the Central Valley? After all we don’t want to flush all those Delta smelts out sea!
The folks down in Central CA are happy about all the rain-
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/03/29/central-california-lake-fills-to-capacity-for-first-time-in-decades/
I can’t tell how much official rain fell in my area- outside of Placerville, CA, during the last series of storms as PG&E decided not to keep track of the rain details anymore- formerly reported in our local paper.
Our rains have been steady for about 2 and a half weeks. Per my rain gauge we have gotten .2″ on the lightest rain day and a combo of rain and snow equaling 1.7″ as the max for a day. My data recorder, my wife, hasn’t totaled up series of storms totals yet…. We didn’t reach a max rain event day at our location with this series of storms. That was a bit bit over 5 inches over a 24 hour time period.
R. Gates,
So, in essence you are saying that it would take a decade of snowy summers to derail your delusion?
Be careful about what you wish for…