Where in Alpine County was Tamarack?
Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:23 pm
Decades ago as a young person I read that the US record for snowfall in a single month was at Tamarack in Alpine County. There wasn't enough information to figure out exactly where that measurement was made. I found Tamarack on the map near Bear Valley per below, a place I was familiar with when driving up SR-4 towards Ebbetts Pass,. However that location did not make sense to be the most snowy location that I thought ought to be at a snowy ridgeline area such as Donner Summit. Occassionally in following years I stumbled upon that information and might dig some more but without success including in the early days of the Internet a decade ago. Of course information is continually being added to the web and what is accessible. So when I crossed the subject again today, I looked some more. Here is what is in Wikipedia:
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Tamarack (formerly, Camp Tamarack[2]) is an unincorporated community in Calaveras County, California, United States. A nearby weather station, located across the Alpine County line, has been the site of United States meteorological records. The community was founded in the 1920s.[2]
Tamarack's weather station owns the national snowfall record for one month: in January 1911, Tamarack received 390 inches (32.5 feet) of snow.[3] It also set the American seasonal snow depth record of 454 inches (37.8 ft.), measured on March 10, 1911.[3] During the winter of 1911 Tamarack was buried beneath a total of 767 inches (63.9 feet) of snow, most of which fell during that notorious January.[3] Tamarack also holds the California seasonal snowfall record of 884 inches.[3]
Tamarack is located at an elevation of 6,913 feet (2,107 m)[4], on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada near Bear Valley and south of South Lake Tahoe.
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Notice the above does not preclude that the measurement was made away from the weather station itself. Note the station's elevation at 6,913. That is at 38.4 by 120.1 degrees lon/lat. Today I found some new information on a lead from this link:
http://www.weather.gov/om/coop/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That shows a station id 048781 called Tamarack that is not at the above location but rather:
048781 TAMARACK
38° 36´N Longitude
119° 56´W Elevation
2458 meters 8064 feet
That weather website also showed:
1 month snowfall: 390 inches (32.5 feet) at Tamarack, Jan. 1991 (US record)
Total winter snowfall: 884 inches (73.7 feet) Tamarack, 1906-07
Greatest snow depth: 451 inches (37.6 feet) at Tamarack, Mar. 11, 1911 (US record)
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That lat/lon leads to this place, Tamarack Lake, I had long suspected as possibly being the true location measured:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=38.61130,-119.90174&z=15&t=T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Another web site of historical Sierra natural research information noted:
(3) Tamarack, Alpine County, 8,000 feet elevation, lies on the headwaters of
the Mokelumne River in a glaciated region Avith many small lakes, the largest
being the Blue Lakes, two glacial basins, each about one-half mile long. The
station is distant from Summit about 50 miles to the southeast and is in the
upper part of the Canadian life-zone.
If one looks at the topography of Tamarack Lake it is believably the site of the record. The elevation of 8k is far more likely to have deeper snows than 7k. It is shallow valley at the Sierra Crest on the lee side of a gentle mountain where blowing snow is likely to fill in deeply. Deer Creek is a south to north canyon to the southwest that would tend to funnel storms up and over the gentle rise southwest of the lake.
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Tamarack (formerly, Camp Tamarack[2]) is an unincorporated community in Calaveras County, California, United States. A nearby weather station, located across the Alpine County line, has been the site of United States meteorological records. The community was founded in the 1920s.[2]
Tamarack's weather station owns the national snowfall record for one month: in January 1911, Tamarack received 390 inches (32.5 feet) of snow.[3] It also set the American seasonal snow depth record of 454 inches (37.8 ft.), measured on March 10, 1911.[3] During the winter of 1911 Tamarack was buried beneath a total of 767 inches (63.9 feet) of snow, most of which fell during that notorious January.[3] Tamarack also holds the California seasonal snowfall record of 884 inches.[3]
Tamarack is located at an elevation of 6,913 feet (2,107 m)[4], on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada near Bear Valley and south of South Lake Tahoe.
=============================================================
Notice the above does not preclude that the measurement was made away from the weather station itself. Note the station's elevation at 6,913. That is at 38.4 by 120.1 degrees lon/lat. Today I found some new information on a lead from this link:
http://www.weather.gov/om/coop/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That shows a station id 048781 called Tamarack that is not at the above location but rather:
048781 TAMARACK
38° 36´N Longitude
119° 56´W Elevation
2458 meters 8064 feet
That weather website also showed:
1 month snowfall: 390 inches (32.5 feet) at Tamarack, Jan. 1991 (US record)
Total winter snowfall: 884 inches (73.7 feet) Tamarack, 1906-07
Greatest snow depth: 451 inches (37.6 feet) at Tamarack, Mar. 11, 1911 (US record)
=============================================================
That lat/lon leads to this place, Tamarack Lake, I had long suspected as possibly being the true location measured:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=38.61130,-119.90174&z=15&t=T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Another web site of historical Sierra natural research information noted:
(3) Tamarack, Alpine County, 8,000 feet elevation, lies on the headwaters of
the Mokelumne River in a glaciated region Avith many small lakes, the largest
being the Blue Lakes, two glacial basins, each about one-half mile long. The
station is distant from Summit about 50 miles to the southeast and is in the
upper part of the Canadian life-zone.
If one looks at the topography of Tamarack Lake it is believably the site of the record. The elevation of 8k is far more likely to have deeper snows than 7k. It is shallow valley at the Sierra Crest on the lee side of a gentle mountain where blowing snow is likely to fill in deeply. Deer Creek is a south to north canyon to the southwest that would tend to funnel storms up and over the gentle rise southwest of the lake.