The last chapter on our snowpack was written Monday - the final check to see how big of a snow season it really was. Up Mt. Rose at 8,800 feet, the Sierra is back to being a giant, frozen mass of white. The federal hydrologist, Jeff Anderson with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, told us, "Oh we're really happy. This has definitely been a Miracle March. Maybe it’s not quite up to the standards of 1991, but it’s definitely a very close second."
After the March we had, signs and structures again barely peek out above the powder…the picture of a sweet comeback after a winter that looked more empty than full. "December, January and February was the driest winter period we have had. You have to go all the way back to November to get a month that was above normal precipitation."
Even though the last live snow measurement of the season is done at Mt. Rose, it’s not just for skiers. All the snow is our drinking water and farm irrigation...a natural bank that gradually melts and feeds the streams and the Truckee River in Spring and Summer. Snow is already measured by height and weight electronically and automatically. The human measurement is done the same way they did it over 100 years ago. Push in the long pole, pull up a sample of snow and measure it by inches. Then weigh the snow within the tube. Then with pen and paper (more old school), you calculate its water content…and how much water we have here. Anderson’s results: "Depth measurement was 101 inches deep of snow, and that contains 34.2 inches of water."
Good density for decent runoff, and coming in at 93% of average. As he puts it, “When your child comes home with 93% on their report card, you're like 'Good job!' That's what I'd say about this winter, how March turned out."
Jeff says it's a big white sigh of relief. Without the comeback we had, we'd be sunk. This March was the wettest in seven years, and double what March usually brings us. Good news.
You can keep tabs on updated measurements at all the area rivers and several sites at Lake Tahoe at the California-Nevada SNOTEL website.
We have a link to that page below:
https://wcc.sc.egov.usda.gov/reports/UpdateReport.html?report=California/Nevada
