8 feet of stubborn snow clings to California ground
Winter sports enthusiasts enjoy extended season
It’s an endless winter in the West.
Snow from the barrage of storms that pounded the western mountains over the winter is still on the ground. Many mountains in the Rockies, Sierra and Cascades are packed with at least 8 feet of snow, the National Weather Service said, creating a dream summer for skiers and snowboarders.
The Mammoth Mountain ski area in California is seeing its “best spring conditions in decades ... and will be operating DAILY into August for one of our longest seasons in history,” the resort said on its website. “When will this endless winter end? We don’t have that answer yet, but we do know that the skiing and riding is all-time right now.”
The snowpack throughout the Sierra rivals, and in places exceeds, records set during the massive winter of 1982-83. As of June 6, the amount of snow on the ground in the central Sierra was twice as much as usual, marking its biggest June snowpack in decades, the California Department of Water Resources said.
“We are in rare territory here with the winter we’ve had,” said Chris Smallcomb, a meteorologist with the weather service in Reno, the office that covers the Sierra in California.
The snow can be a deadly hazard for hikers or water enthusiasts. Snow-covered routes make walking difficult, and falls on steep slopes can result in long, dangerous slides.
Streams will rise and become deeper and more powerful, increasing the danger of drowning for kayakers or hikers who fall in.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, three people died and 24 required rescue from the swollen and frigid Kern River in Southern California.
All three deaths involved rafting incidents.
The winter snow and rain delivered a knockout blow to the five-year drought in central and Northern California.
The drought continues to hang on in portions of Southern California.
There’s still more snow on the way this weekend: Several inches are possible across the highest elevations of the Washington and Oregon Cascades, as well as high mountain locations in Idaho, western Montana, western Wyoming, northeast Utah and parts of northern Colorado into Tuesday, according to the Weather Channel.
The best chance of 6 or more inches of snow will be in the Cascades and in the Bitterroots of Idaho and Montana.