Re: [pct-l] Snow Map South of the Sierras

[bjensen4@juno.com (Birgitte Jensen)]

On Tue, 12 Jan 1999 09:57:13 -0800 "Joanne Lennox" <goforth@cio.net>
writes:
>There appears to be no snow whatever from the Sierras at 9,000
>ft. to the Mexican border. If so May is going to be dry.

    Probably if La Nina stays with us, the So CA mountains (which are in
the desert and are seldom snowy in late-spring/summer anyway) will be
pieces of cake as usual. The lack-of-snow at present however, is more a
reflection of the fact that the season of hard rains/snow doesn't
normally start there until February: whatever the snow level is _now_ is
not a good total indicator of snow levels later on. 
    In normal years, the heaviest snows are yet to fall in the Sierra as
well; also the month the snowfall ends is important in any mountain
range. Last year was ghastly not only because heavy snowfall started so
early, and was so constant throught the winter, but because it continued
months beyond the time it usually stops.
    IMHO, late March is a more reasonable time for hikers to start
seriously extrapolating from snow-sensors, stuff like that.....        
bj

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