Welcome to 02/18

[dan]

Postby Phil » Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:48 pm
Wow! It's not over till it's over, but this is pretty abysmal for the middle of February. Pay special attention to the High Sierra and Badger Pass cams.

https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/photosmu ... ebcams.htm

[Justin-T]

After almost no precipitation in Feb, there’s been enough rain in March to reach the average for Feb and March combined, so a pretty decent comeback. Should be another snowpack report midweek but I think it’s likely we’ll be around 50% of normal on April 1 (maybe a bit higher), which would be quite a recovery from the disastrous state it was little more than a month ago.

[AlmostThere]

The rain is melting it fast.

Flooding is now ensuing, roads closing, and make sure you check before driving to Yosemite - 140 had more rockfalls last night.

[Justin-T]

Its rain, even above 9,000'?

[Phil]

And the NOAA is calling it all but done for the year. Supposed to be in the mid-upper 70s next week, so the melt is going to come even more fast and furious.

[robow8]

And the NOAA is calling it all but done for the year. Supposed to be in the mid-upper 70s next week, so the melt is going to come even more fast and furious.

Howard Sheckter of mammothweather.com said it looks like a pattern is developing that is similar to what happened last season.

http://mammothweather.com/

[Justin-T]

YNP FB page reports 31 inches of snow in the high country the last couple days, so I think the glass is half full...

There will most likely be another "winter conditions in Tuolumne" report out on Wednesday, so that will give us a better idea of where we stand. It does sound like at least some of the 13.6 inches of precipitation in March is still sitting on the backcountry slopes in crystalline form.

[AlmostThere]

Went snowshoeing last Saturday - consolidated as heck at around 7500 feet. We'll see at the end of the week how much of it melts in the warmer weather...

[WanderingJim]

Went snowshoeing last Saturday - consolidated as heck at around 7500 feet. We'll see at the end of the week how much of it melts in the warmer weather...

Yeah, i was jumping for joy that we finally got a bunch of snow, but then the heatwave followed this week. I'll be going to Yosemite on Friday. What I do depends on conditions.

A little worried there might not be enough snow along the north rim by then. May just head up snow creek and go up towards Tuolumne Meadows and enjoy the snow as I go.

[Justin-T]

Today's winter conditions report is out, 44 inches of snowpack at TM, which I estimate will correspond to roughly 65-70% of average by the time we hit April 1. Using the analysis I did last year (which used 35+ years of April 1 snowpack data), including the new 2017 datapoint, this predicts a Tioga Road opening in mid-May - around May 12 - May 15. Here's the old thread that got moved into a different forum http://www.yosemite.ca.us/forum/viewtopic/f=11&t=3957. They also report that Tioga Rd is currently snow-covered from Crane Flat all the way beyond the Tioga Pass, around the 9000' line towards Lee Vining.

[Phil]

Are we going to do the whole betting on what date Tioga Rd opens this year again? Put me down for $20 and call it the weekend before Memorial Day.

From the webcam that picks up the portion of the north rim at the flat on Snow Creek, looks like there's pretty consistent cover holding so far this week to me.

[Justin-T]

Lets just stick to keeping tabs on developing trail conditions this time. The road opening will happen at its own pace, even though I think its fun to guess...

[balzaccom]

Until the road opens, the conditions for the trails won't matter so much, because you can't get to a lot of the trailheads.