Winter Whiplash Hits West: After Epic December Snowfall, Precipitation Off A Cliff In January

[hatrack]

Winter whiplash has hit California and the West. Doused in epic snow and rain in December, the region has just experienced one of the driest Januaries on record in many locations, and there are no storms in sight for at least the first half of February. The weeks-long dry spell, in the midst of what should be the wettest two months of the year, is dashing hopes of meaningful drought recovery this winter. Water-year surpluses are sliding into deficits, and fire danger is on the rise in California. The reversal may soon emerge in drought maps.

“As the West moves into the second half of its winter wet season, a return to stormy weather will be needed to sustain the drought improvement that occurred during October and December,” said last week’s U.S. Drought Monitor report.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=691
Snowfall accumulation in the Western United States took a sharp downturn from December to January, potentially magnifying drought risk. (Ian Livingston/Capital Weather Gang)

The turnaround in snow fortunes has been stark. With little to no snow accumulation in California in January, statewide snowpack is now below average at 92 percent of normal, after beginning the month at 154 percent of normal. After snowy December, California suddenly turns dry, magnifying drought concern. “We still have about two more months to build up our snowpack, but we all need to be prepared for a third dry year,” Sean de Guzman of the California Department of Water Resources said Tuesday at a monthly winter snow survey.

A prime example is the ultra-snowy Mammoth Mountain in the central Sierra Nevada. It went from 161 inches of snow in December, the second most on record for that month, to zero in January, the least on record for that month. Its snowfall to date of 190.8 inches is close to the Feb. 1 average (202 inches), but the lack of snow is January puts Mammoth in danger of falling below average in the coming weeks. It’s a similar story at Soda Springs near Tahoe. In December, a record-breaking 214 inches was measured at the University of California at Berkeley’s Snow Lab there. In January, 10 inches of snow fell during the first week, and then the snow stopped.

EDIT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/02/02/california-january-drought-snow/

[hunter]

1. Some of our neighbors, those who still have front lawns, are turning their sprinklers back on.

That's a bad omen...

Usually the sprinklers in this part of California are off from the first significant rain in October to the last significant rain in April or early May.

This drought will lead to further depletion of groundwater and all the problems that causes.

My wife's family home is in the Sierras. Last summer was hellish with the fires and the drought itself. Neighbors had wells going dry.

It's beginning to look like this coming summer will be a repeat of that.