California: highest snowfall in 40 years in the mountains… what about global warming?
California snow levels continue to rise after hitting their highest level in 40 years following weeks of storms in December and January.
Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, measured at Phillips Station near South Lake Tahoe, was measured at 205 percent of the year's historical average on Feb. 1, following three of the wettest weeks California has had in recent years, according to the officials.
It's also up 20% since it was measured last month.
“Our snowpack got off to an incredible start. And that's exactly what California needs to help weather the ongoing drought,” said Sean de Guzman, the California Department of Water Resources' manager of snow surveys and water supply forecasting. This fact is very important to overcome the drought that has gripped the state for three years, but some large reserves are not yet sufficiently filled. .
“We have seen a staggering increase in tank storage across the state, but some of these larger tanks are still below par,” he said.
According to Guzman, there has been an increase of 9 million square meters in dock warehousing since December 1.
“However, for every day that it doesn't rain or snow, we gradually return to drier conditions,” he said, without thinking that one cannot ask for it to rain every day…
The recent measurement represented a 137% increase over last April's average, given the peak annual snowpack.
But according to Karla Nemeth, director of the department of water resources, the traditional peak snow date may be evolving.
“The timing of the peak is changing with the climate,” he said.
He said the department is hoping for a large return of water from snowmelt to the state's underground reservoirs, which hold about 10 times more than surface reservoirs and are fed by snow.
“It takes much longer to fill our groundwater reservoirs than it does to fill our tanks,” he said. In short, they are never happy, yet after three years of drought the water seems to arrive.
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The article California: the highest level of snow in the mountains for 40 years .. and global warming? comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/california-sulle-montagne-il-piu-alto-livello-di-neve-da-40-anni-e-il-riscaldamento-globale/ on Sun, 05 Feb 2023 07:00:47 +0000.