High Sierra Topix

Mike M, just for you information, there is running thread about current conditions
of Tioga Road in the "Transportation To & From" section in the "Tioga Pass opening
date" thread.

Yes see my most recent post in that thread - Glacier Point will be open for the Memorial Day weekend, Tioga in "mid June"

This news release regarding access may be of interest to someone out there (via SEKI)

http://www.nps.gov/seki/parknews/newsreleases.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have a good weekend!

Time for the end of May update (May 29 data.)

Bishop Pass still has more snow in it than it had at its maximum peak last year.
Charlotte Lake is 58% higher (water content) than on this same date last year.
Blackcap Basin is only about 10% higher than on this date last year.
Slide Canyon is about 40% higher than on this date last year.
Dana Meadows is about 15 days behind last year's melt.
Kibbie Ridge is about 9 days behind last year's melt.

It seems that it has been warm enough to have some melting at lower elevations but not warm enough to have average melting at high elevations. We do not look as bad as the 1998 comparison year at lower elevations but we do look just as bad as 1998 at the highest elevations. (Just a reminder that 1998 had a similar amount of snow as 2011 (not quite as much) but a very cool spring and was around 20 days behind an average year.)

The CDEC daily regional plots show that the southern Sierras are on average catching up to last year's plot lines, but the mid Sierras is still far behind.

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snow/PLOT_SWC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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