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“We’re gonna need a bigger plow.” How parts of the Sierra Nevada received more than ten feet of snow in days

An atmospheric river developed, dumping snow on the Sierra Nevada in a matter of days.

A stop sign is half buried in snow in a Donner Lake neighborhood on Friday, March 4, 2024, in Truckee, Calif. A powerful blizzard that closed highways and ski resorts had moved through the Sierra Nevada by early Monday, but forecasters warned that more snow was on the way for the Northern California mountains. More than 7 feet (2.1 meters) of snow fell in some locations and fierce winds lashed the Sierra over the weekend. (AP Photo/Andy Barron) (Andy Barron, Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

ROANOKE, Va. – There are some parts of the country where extreme weather is more common than other parts.

Hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast and East Coast. Tornadoes happen more often in the Deep South and Plains.

And then there are atmospheric rivers.

Atmospheric rivers can best be characterized as narrow bands of tropical moisture. When these bands move over land, they can become very impactful.

Atmospheric rivers can result in intense rain and snowfall.

California and the West Coast of the U.S. see them so often, that there’s now a scale devised to show their severity.

One such atmospheric river developed as a slow-moving area of low pressure hit the West Coast this past weekend and earlier this week, dumping feet of snow on parts of the Sierra Nevada.

A mailbox and the roof of a home are covered in snow during a storm, Saturday, March 2, 2024, in Truckee, Calif. A powerful blizzard howled Saturday in the Sierra Nevada as the biggest storm of the season shut down a long stretch of Interstate 80 in California and gusty winds and heavy rain hit lower elevations, leaving tens of thousands of homes without power. (AP Photo/Brooke Hess-Homeier) (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

California’s mountains, like many of the Western mountains, are taller than the Appalachians, Blue Ridge, Smokies, etc.

When air rises up higher terrain, it cools, expands and condenses more efficiently. Therefore, that tropical moisture over higher terrain led to extremely efficient snow rates.

The National Weather Service in Sacramento published storm reports from the most recent storm. Sugar Bowl, California reported 126″ of snow. That’s ten-and-a-half FEET of snow in just four days.

UC-Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab calculated 78″ (6.5 feet) of snow over the four-day period.

Let’s compare that snow with what we’ve seen in recent years, understanding that the Sierra Nevada is a much different and (at times) more extreme climate than ours.

Sugar Bowl’s 126″ of snow over a span of four days is roughly equivalent to what Roanoke has seen in the past decade.

Sugar Bowl, California received more snow in four days than we've seen in a decade.

In addition to the intense snow, one weather station at Palisade Ski Resort at Lake Tahoe recorded a wind gust of 190 mph.

There were several other hurricane-force wind gusts recorded during the time of the blizzard in the Sierra Nevada.

Though the weather was extreme, this snow pushes them above the normal amount of snow-water equivalent, meaning that California stands a good chance of avoiding severe drought in the spring.

This is a look at snow-water equivalent according to the California-Nevada River Forecast Center.

This could potentially be a sign of a larger shift in a global oceanic pattern.

The El Niño Southern Oscillation appears likely to be moving into a La Niña again in the summer of 2024.

The most recent ocean analysis shows a shrinking area of warmer-than-average ocean water off the coast of Peru.

This map shows ocean temperature anomalies in the Pacific as of February 28, 2024, per NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.

A La Niña could lead to more frequent storms in the Western U.S. and less storm systems over the Eastern U.S. this coming summer.

The lack of wind shear from Eastern U.S. storm systems, along with record warmth in the North Atlantic, could potentially spell trouble in the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.


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