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Snow Pack in the Sierras and the fear of Biblical flooding


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Eight feet of snow still on the ground near Donner Pass yesterday. At another location, more snow on the ground at this date since records started being kept in 1868. Great fear is the chances for a catastrophic melt increase as summer nears, with the greatest threat posed to the San Joaquin Valley.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/08/MNVO1JQ9B4.DTL

The snow water equivalents are running up to10x normal. Snow water equivalents of 20, 30, 40 inches appear to be common.

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/data/snow/update/ca.txt

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feast or famine.. not an issue they run into often. imo it's better to have too much compared to too little in cali--hopefully it doesnt all melt at once.

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Buddy in Truckee says they've received snow most every night for the last week.

Combined with the immense snow from the winter, you're right this could be a dangerous situation if they get any massive rains coming in off the Pac.

That's highly unlikely this time of year. But a prolonged heatwave in the next couple weeks could create a serious situation. Fortunately, models are not showing that at this time.

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We have similar concerns in British Columbia since the snow pack has only started to melt above 4,000 ft ... a hot spell and/or heavy rains would spell trouble in many valleys here, with the biggest concern being a massive runoff into the Fraser River as last seen in 1948 (and 1894). Will update if anything develops, right now it's mainly wait and see.

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Article today on Utah as well...

http://www.nytimes.c...lines&emc=tha27

Some of the ski resorts around here are still open for weekend skiiing as well. There was also fear that the record snowpack would lead to major flooding here, but thanks to no major heatwaves, the snowmelt has just been moderate with only minor flooding. Looks like the same is true for CA and UT also.

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