![]() ![]() NASA Earth Observatory World of Change: Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. ![]() NASA Earth Observatory (2023, April 6) Return of Tulare Lake.NASA Earth Observatory (2023, January 12) Storms Soak California.NASA Earth Observatory (2023, April 1) A Surge of Floodwater For Owens Lake.How deep is that? Accessed April 19, 2023. Los Angeles Times (2023, March 24) Snowpack in southern Sierra hits all-time record levels.The Conversation (2023, April 17) Epic snow from all those atmospheric rivers in the West is starting to melt, and the flood danger is rising.CalMatters (2023, March 10) California storms create paradox: Too much water in reservoirs, too soon.California Department of Water California Water Watch, Precipitation Map on.California Department of Water (2023, April 3) California’s Snowpack is Now One of the Largest Ever, Bringing Drought Relief, Flooding Concerns.NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview and snow water equivalent (SWE) data courtesy of the University of Colorado Boulder Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Funding for the product was originally provided by NASA’s applied sciences program, and it is now supported by CA-DWR. This year’s exceptionally high snowpack was preceded by three years of extreme drought in the western U.S.ĭata provided by Molotch and INSTAAR colleagues Leanne Lestak and Kehan Yang provide a detailed picture of snowpack across the range and at different elevations, which helps CA-DWR and other water managers better forecast snowmelt. This year, some reservoirs are so full that water managers are having to release water to make room for more snowmelt. In a typical year, this snowpack accounts for about 30 percent of California’s water supply. Snow that falls in the Sierra Nevada each winter is a natural reservoir that slowly melts and flows down into the river valleys in spring and summer. Mountains in the central part of the range were at 284 percent of normal, and slopes to the north were 271 percent of normal. The measurement was particularly high in the southern Sierras: four times (439 percent) the average for April 1, according to Molotch’s analysis. The map below shows snow water equivalent (SWE)-a measurement of how much water you would get if all of the snow in a given area melted at once. “This is the greatest amount of snow water content we have seen in the Sierra Nevada since our record began in 2000,” Molotch said. ![]() Their analysis on April 1-which is typically the date of peak snowpack-confirmed that the season was a boom. Molotch and colleagues at INSTAAR have been using satellite data to track snowpack along the range every two weeks. “This has contributed to an anomalously high snowpack in both the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains and at lower elevations along the range.” Parts of the central coast experienced the coldest winter since 1978-1979, according to the National Weather Service. “Not only was this year wet, it was also unusually cold,” said Noah Molotch, a mountain hydrologist at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The natural-color satellite images above, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, show the stark difference between the snow cover in the Sierra Nevada on Ap(right) compared to Ap(left). Precipitation from these storms contributed to a breach of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the re-emergence of Tulare Lake in the San Joaquin River Valley, and heaps of snow on the range. Eleven moderate-strength atmospheric rivers hit the southern Sierra Nevada this year, which is twice the average number. Many parts of central California received 200 percent or more of expected precipitation this water year, which started on October 1. Precipitation from a deluge of atmospheric rivers blanketed the California mountain range with a historic amount of snow. To see changes in the snowpack since 2006, visit our World of Change series.Īfter three years of busts, 2023 was a boom year for snow in the Sierra Nevada. Today’s story compares the 20 snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. ![]()
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