Sierra Nevada snow survey finds 0.14", lowest ever recorded [View all]

[Newsjock]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/03/BAE71MKAPB.DTL&tsp=1

It was supposed to be a winter slog through a blanket of white, but the first Sierra snow survey of the year today was really just a nice stroll through a meadow.

Frank Gehrke, the chief snow surveyor for the California Department of Water Resources, might have had better luck counting butterflies than taking snow measurements at historic Phillips Station off Highway 50 near Lake Tahoe.

He nevertheless managed to find a small patch of white shaded by trees that he dutifully measured for water content. The result, 0.14 of an inch, was the lowest amount in January since measurements began in 1964 at the privately owned cabin near the Sierra at Tahoe resort, where the results of the monthly snow surveys are traditionally announced.

... There was almost as much snow in the Sierra on July 4 as there is now, and some say the skiing was also better in the summer.