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California’s high Sierra has experienced just a bit of winter in the waning days of – summer?
Yosemite National Park had snow flurries at both Tioga Pass and Tuolumne Meadows on Monday as did the high elevation of 9,000 feet in the Lake Tahoe area. Some four inches of snow dusted the high points of Sierra Nevada range, dropping down to as low as the 7,500 foot elevation.
Whereas many revealed in the early show of winter others were much less impressed.
Zach Tolby of the National Weather Service’s Reno office was rather blasé about the whole thing. “It’s just an early season storm it doesn’t have any correlation with the rest of the winter,” he said.
Tolby’s assessment was echoed by Brooke Bingaman, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “This snow is not going to last, but it’s fun to see snow in the mountain.” She continued her comments stating pragmatically, “By the end of the week, temperatures will go back to five or six degrees above average. In the Sierra, the daytime high will be in the upper 60s to upper 70s across the higher elevations.”
Although all passes over the Central Sierra crest, including Highways 4, 108 and 120, remained open Tuesday — according to Caltrans — pass closings are contingent on how much snow an area receives, as well as current weather and road conditions, said Skip Allum with Caltrans District 10. It’s up to maintenance supervisors for each area to determine if roads are safe for motorists.
Allum also shared that in the past decade, the earliest date Sonora Pass has closed for the winter was Oct. 17, 2004. The latest date the pass closed for winter was Jan. 1, 2012. Last year, Caltrans workers closed Sonora Pass for winter on Nov. 27, 2015.
But in spite of the nonchalant comments from National Weather Service employees, California skiers, snowboarders and ski resort staff remain excited as the snow fell earlier this week.
“It looks like winter already. The first snow always gets me pumped,” said Kevin “Coop” Cooper, spokesman for Kirkwood and Heavenly ski resorts. Cooper said that at 8,000 feet Kirkwood got three to four inches of winter white while down just 200 feet down the mountain the snow was only one to two inches deep.
Thea Hardy, spokeswoman at Sierra-at-Tahoe, was surprised when about an inch of snow was measured at the mountain’s summit at 8,852 feet. “It is exciting to get a snow this early,” Hardy said.
Though the headline from the Sacramento Bee suggests that no one “…grab the skis just yet” others were optimistic above the possibility of an early and wet winter for reasons other than just skiing. Allison Jones, of Sonora, said she is excited and grateful about the possibility of an early winter.
“I think it’s a sign of hope because of the drought,” she said. “… we need a cold wet winter. Not just to get through the drought but to kill the bark beetles. I’m ready for fall and winter. I’m tired of 90-degree days.
