There is no point in continuing to discuss Tahoe’s lack of snow. No one wants to hear about it. We all know about it, it dominates our thoughts, it’s abrasively grating against of faces everyday, and it’s not changing. Yet, hearing the numbers on exactly how this year stacks up against a normal year is still interesting.
I had the privilege of speaking with Randal Osterhuber of the UC Berkeley Snow Laboratory at Donner Summer yesterday. I asked him for the percentages of normal-to-date. I knew they’d be a bit shocking. Here they are:
AS OF FEBRUARY 1ST, 2012 @ DONNER SUMMIT, CA:
– 26% of normal-to-date snow depth
– 44% of normal-to-date snowfall
– 59% of normal-to-date precipitation
These are good numbers to know. When people wanna talk about Tahoe’s lack of snow, all you have to say is
“No sh#t it’s a bad year, we’ve only got 26% of normal snowpack and it’s February. What other horribly depressing topic would you like to discuss now?”
Special thanks to Randal & the UC Berkeley Snow Lab for all their assistance over the past two years.
For a look at how Tahoe is looking from the air, check out our post “Tahoe Tour by Air” from Jan. 28th, 2012.