As Of 2/11, Sierra Snowpack 21% Of Normal; 1 Day W. More Than 1/3" Of Rain In LA Area In Past Year

[hatrack]

Atmospheric conditions that helped create the recent multiyear California drought have returned, leaving the state dry and exceptionally warm this winter and its residents wondering if another long dry spell is on the way.

A ridge of high-pressure air off the West Coast has persisted for much of the past three months, blocking many Pacific storms from reaching California and weakening others that do get through. Normally such ridges tend to come and go, but they also lingered during the 2012-16 drought, the worst in the state’s history.

“We are now seeing another year that looks like one of those drought years,” said Daniel Swain, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, who during the drought coined the term “ridiculously resilient ridge” to describe the atmospheric pattern. “This one is definitely a resilient ridge, but we don’t know if it’s quite reaching the ‘ridiculous’ threshold,” said Dr. Swain, who blogs about California’s weather.

EDIT

Even so, the dry, warm weather that has persisted since late fall is taking a toll, with snowpack in the Sierra Nevada — the source of about one-third of California’s water — at 21 percent of normal on Monday. Without a flurry of storms to add to the snowpack in the next few months, the low snowpack could eventually lead to supply problems, especially if dry conditions persist for the next few years.

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State officials measure the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada last month.CreditJim Wilson/The New York Times

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/climate/california-drought.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

[notdarkyet]

1. Its been very warm and dry here in the middle of as also. It sprinkled yesterday,

Barely wetting the ground, the first time in five months. There is no snow on the mountains. Scary.