KCRA is an NBC affiliate in Sacramento that does a fair job of reporting on snow conditions in the Sierra mountains. Also on drought, and flood, but that is not what they have this year. Lake Tahoe area snow totals: More than 7 feet of snow added from the weekend's Sierra snowstorm
After four days of relentless snow, final totals are coming in from California's Lake Tahoe region.
Some Sierra ski resorts reported more than seven feet of snow from Thursday through Sunday. The heaviest snow came during the second half of Friday and Saturday.
They also reference one of my favorite meteorological sites, the Berkley Central Sierra Snow Lab at Donner Pass.
At the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab site near Donner Summit, round-the-clock observations added up for a four-day total of 75.2 inches of snow. The snowpack water content at that site is now 199% of average for the date.
That is important, because the snow melt fills the reservoirs of the California Aqueduct system. Without that system Los Angeles would go back to being a desert, and agriculture would not be possible, or not profitable anyway, in the Central Valley.
If you're interested in how this storm came to be, Juan Browne at Blancoliro has a great video explaining the orographic lift that created this snowfall, and also the dry winds in Texas contributing to the fires. (The relevant part of the video - while I enjoyed all of it - is about 3 minutes, following the point at which I have it queued up.)
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