High Sierra Topix

This week doesn't look good for further melting. We tried to go to Glacier Point today but the road was closed due to a blizzard. There was 6 inches at 6000ft this afternoon (new snow down to 5000ft) and chain control between Wawona and the Valley. That was on top of more snow Saturday night. It felt a lot more like February than the end of May today. I'm glad we took the sleds with us! The photo below is at the Glacier Point turnoff (6000ft) this afternoon.

Storm coming in Friday & Saturday; they're forecasting as much as 2" of rain in the Bay Area, which translates to non-trivial snowfall in the Sierra.

This moment- chain controls on I-80, 50 and 88. And this is not even "the storm" yet!

Caught this off the web; Minaret Vista station on Memorial Day weekend. Holy smokes Batman....

Apparently the crews have just begun to plow the road down the Agnew Meadows.

Is the light on in the ranger station?

My dad is the controller for a blueberry farm in the central valley. He told me that in terms of growing days (not sure what metric they use, degree-days?) that May is looking to be one of the coldest on record. That does not bode well for sierra snow melt rates. Maybe June will pick up the slack.

Shawn wrote:Caught this off the web; Minaret Vista station on Memorial Day weekend. Holy smokes Batman....

Apparently the crews have just begun to plow the road down the Agnew Meadows.

Thanks for sharing this photo. Its looks again like 1995 to me. Thats when Mammoth Mtn stayed opend until August 13th.

Texan

Here's some photos from when I flew over Mammoth and Yosemite into SFO this morning.
The photos don't show it so well, but Merced and Washburn don't appear to be frozen (or at least are not snow covered) - there is snow on the sides of the valley above them (and presumably in the trees), but exposed areas of granite are fairly clear.

great recon, tim.. makes me fret my late july trip even more if we don't get some warmer weather.

Wow those are truly amazing shots. Well done! Thinking about doing the duck lake pass in late June... Looks like at least the lake won't be frozen, but my feet might be!

I posted this on another thread, but maybe it's better here.

Don't know if I ever mentioned I work (very part time) as a snow surveyor. Here are the June 1st numbers: the southern Sierra is averaging about 75% of April 1 (last year was 70%), the central Sierra is averaging 100% which is 30% greater then last year.

Mammoth Pass and Gem Pass are both coming in huge at 145% and 182% respectively. Blackcap Basin is also 145%. Note that these numbers are compared to April 1st. The percent to date is more along the lines of 250% to 350%

This weekend and part of next week are forecasted to be cold and snowy throughout the Sierra (1 to 2 FEET possibly above 10,000'). If the pack is still at 100% by June 8th, (which looks very likely at this point) it will match that of the record year of 1983 to date in the central Sierra.

It is no where near that record to the south.

What I've noticed on my ski tours this spring is that the snow increases substantially; to the north, with elevation and west of the crest.

What's all this mean? Heck if I know. Just thought y'all might be interested.

JD