It's snowing...

[Drew Wiley]

I've never stepped on a poodle, but once in a severe winter storm all the sewers backed up down here next to the bay and dead rats laying all over the parking lot.
But I've gotten pretty darn good at predicting mid-southern Sierra weather by whatever clouds go over here the day before. That's how I knew there would be snow
up there already, and based upon a steady but relatively cool rain all last nite here, you can expect distinctly more snow over the next day or so.

[tgtaylor]

It's shaping-up to be a big El Nino year and the end of California's drought: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...rnia/29921633/

Back during the 1997 event I remember driving up to Fremont Peak with my telescope on a Friday afternoon. I was sure that the sky would clear and with all the rain we had would have a crystal clear atmosphere through which to observe. Got the telescope all set-up and a big wind came and over towards Concord way I watched a a tornado touch down. They say that this years El Nino will be bigger than the one in '97 which was the largest on record I believe.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

I sure hope so, but wouldn't place any bets yet! I'd like to get beyond water rationing and start routinely printing again.

[bbuszard]

I just got back from backpacking in the Mammoth area and was surprised how cold it was. I've been in the Sierra several times before, including a John Muir Trail thru-hike far too many years ago, and I've never seen a week in July that was as consistently wet and cool. We had rain every afternoon and a very interesting hailstorm. No poodles, unfortunately. It was more like Front Range weather than the Sierra.

We drove back to civilization through Tioga but didn't see any snow (rats). I doubt that the precip will come near to compensating for the absent snow pack, though I'd be very happy to be wrong.

[Drew Wiley]

Don't make stereotypes about the Sierra. I've been in mid-August weather where my toothpaste froze in the middle of my pack under a blue sky mid-day at
12,000 ft. Then the next day it snowed so hard that Hwy 395, way down at the bottom, outright closed just above Bishop (where it's typically about a hundred degrees), and while I finally stumbled out of the hills, went to Death Valley, where I had to wear a light jacket (where it might ordinarily be 115 or even 120 that time of year). I could tell multiple stories of like nature. I remember at week when several climbers froze to death in Yosemite Valley midsummer, based upon
such stereotypes.

[David_Senesac]

Was in that snow last week during an 8-day backpack over Duck Pass into Fish Creek areas of the John Muir Wilderness, mostly over 10k feet. After returning home I analyzed archived jetstream and various weather maps.

As an old Sierra Nevada backpacker I've seen snow every month of the year previously, if one goes high enough. Afternoon thunderstorms had occurred Friday July 3 through Wednesday with strong storms Saturday. It was Thursday morning in the wee hours that started the snow event. Prior to that, the range had been receiving a clockwise high pressure circulation centered over the Four Corners monsoon flow that brings moisture up from the south and southeast usually along the east side of the range from Owen's Valley. Early mornings had few clouds that clouded up by late morning then stormed in the afternoon. Captured quite a few fine images during 3 sunny morning periods early in the trip so the weather didn't shut me out.

A small cut-off low pressure circulation was west off of San Diego while the jetstream was moving across the Northwest. Then on Wednesday the low began migrating north while the jetstream with cooler air sourced from the Gulf of Alaska began splitting putting energy increasingly down into the low that intensified. By Thursday the low was over Central California and created a strong dynamic that occurs every few years in the Sierra during summers with a strong cold front of thunderstorm cells.

Three of us were in individual tents up at 10.3k a bit down from a nearby ridgeline so were sort of lightning safe. Wednesday late afternoon thunderstorms has stopped. At 2am Thursday July 9 saw stars outside my tent during the call of nature. First about 4am was about a half hour of intense lightning thunder every few seconds and then after that subsided some. As an electronics physics career person, that kind of lightning always scares me to the core. Then the largest hail I've experienced in several decades up there began. Have been in many pea to marble sized hail events. My UL1 tent was getting loudly hammered so after a few minutes put on my powerful Fenix HP11 headlamp, lifted the tent vestibule a bit and was looking at grape to cherry sized hail already stacked up about an inch deep. My Marmot Pinnacle sleeping bag was getting wet from the mist off the underside of my tent fly the hail pounded into the air. Of course the underside of the tent was wet from usual condensation and not leaking. Temperature had dropped to upper 30s. About 15 minutes later the hail stopped and then it continued to rain and sleet off an on till about sunrise while temps dropped a bit so much was wet snow.

We got up to a white landscape of white marbles. I wasn't interested in any photography but rather getting us down in elevation crosscountry to a trail a bit more than a mile away since we were about 3 days out from the trailhead and needed to be back at work the next Monday. A minor blue hole opened briefly and we quickly packed up wet gear and escaped. At that point we had to play wisely to avoid serious hypothermic situations. We had rain gear but that has limitations. My gortex mountaineering boots began wicking into my sock after walking through all the wet slush. About midway down to the trail more heavy cool rain pinned us down under trees for about an hour making the white slush pool up all over. The rain waned a bit and we eventually got down to Tully Hole then climbed up reaching the Virginia Lake saddle at 10.3k at noon.

It was moderately snowing with big sticky flakes and temps just above freezing. Could see some higher elevation peaks were rather white. At our elevation snow stuck longer on vegetation while not lasting long on rock surfaces. Am an old winter skiing enthusiast so am rather familiar with dealing with snow. Early pm clouds thinned letting in warming filtered sun and we made camp at Virginia Lake then dried off most of our gear on hung ropes which we had been doing off and on during the week already. Skies stayed totally cloudy another 24 hours until better holes in the clouds appeared midday Friday that allowed us to dry gear out thoroughly. Then hiked out in two days.

[bbuszard]

Sounds like a nice mini-epic, David. It reminds me of the time I *most* regret not having a camera with me. We were approaching Silver pass in late July and were hit with dime-size hail that quickly piled up a couple of inches deep. The hail immediately started evaporating and the ground was soon covered in several inches of thick fog. I'd never seen anything like it before, and haven't since.

[Drew Wiley]

I got into one of those marble-sized hailstorms in Wyoming last year. I always refresh the hood and shoulders of my Goretex parka with Scotchguard after every
such incident, and that's just one reason I only travel in real boots, none of these fabric/Gortex footsie things. Pretty, but the hail deposit was still eight inches
deep atop an even higher pass I crossed two days later. Got some nice shots the day in between, but wasn't about to set up the camera during the event itself.

[tgtaylor]

You could have reached a road much quicker (1 day) by taking McGee Pass instead of going down Tully Hole, etc. It pays to take along a map and know the bail-out options.

Thoma

[Nodda Duma]

It's only up to 100 or so in Inyokern where I used to live.

Father-in-law who is visiting from San Diego says he expects it to be really rainy this coming year and next. Exact same thing happened in the 90s: 3 years of hard drought followed by rainy weather.