Huge March Roadside Snow Depths
Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 10:28 pm
In all the years I've been going up into the Sierra during winter, I don't think I've ever seen as much snow now mid March in the lower mountain elevations of the Sierra. I've not been up on but SR88 and SR140 so maybe some others here can chime in on some of the other routes. Its of course due to so many cold storms this March putting snow down at far lower than normal levels. Along SR88, Ham's Station at 5.4k is buried in maybe 3 to 5 feet and there is still quite a lot of snow on the ground up at Pioneer below 3000 feet with piles of snow at even lower shady areas about Pine Grove. And of course up at 8k, there are huge snow banks along the road at Carson Spur though I have seen more snow there midwinter quite a number of times especially during any of the El Nino years like last year. But even in the El Nino years cold late winter snows in March often melt back quickly at lower elevations so don't pile up as much as we are seeing this unusual year. Even Yosemite Valley at 4000 feet is buried like an icebox with snow all around ground areas of the valley loop road all month. When the current storm cycle ends and warm temps and sun come out, that low elevation snow ought to melt pretty quickly and really swell up the big Sierra rivers.
...David
...David