The Sierra Snowpack is Melting Fast
The heavy rain fall this past winter and spring added up to snowpack that is massive on the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The summer heat is melting the snow so fast that the runoff rate of the water flowing down the mountain is unusually high at 200 to 250 percent of average in many places. The melting snow flows down the mountain into rivers and reservoirs and the Sierra snowpack is California’s most important water sources with its spring and summer runoff feeding rivers and reservoirs, watering crops, and water glasses. Dave Rizzardo, with the California Department of Water Resources, states
Now with the heat wave fully engulfing us, we’re dropping a couple percent a day. It’s a very rapid pace. It’s hard for snow to melt more than three inches of water content a day. We’re seeing that. We’re at the max rate you’d expect given how hot it is.
State water managers and farmers are dependent upon knowing the amount of water the snowpack holds. The Sierra Nevada continued to receive snow through April and even into early June, and on June 1 the snowpack stood at 192 percent of normal. The last time the Sierra saw a massive snowpack was 2011, and that year the melt was much slower. As a result of the snowmelt the lakes and reservoirs are brimming. In the end, a fast amount of melting snow is a better problem to have than not having any water flowing through California.