I'm fascinated by the reappearance of long-disappeared bodies of water like Lake Manly in Death Valley even if, as this Washington Post article notes, it's for the "wrong" (global warming) reasons.
Western Weather 2017-18 and Later
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Interesting. I assume other lakes in the general south west area will benefit from the recent rain. I think I've read about a dire situation at Lake Mead in the past couple of years. Hopefully it gets some love.
Edit. I just checked it out. Seems that it's bounced back to a degree.
Another example of spurious attribution of weather events. The tropical storm last August which formed that lake was almost identical to one in September 1976. There was nothing unusual at all about the atmospheric river storms of the first week of February. I don't know what particular circumstances allowed some of that rain (about 1.5 inches) to reach Death Valley.
The Lake Mead/Colorado River Basin problem is different. Colorado River water was overallocated 100 years ago based upon an unusually wet preceding 20 years. There is also a global warming component in terms of more evaporation during the hotter summers.
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I avidly read about the reappearance of Tulare Lake a year ago in central CA. Wikipedia sez:
One of two remaining historical photos of the lake (from 1880) before it began shrinking:
If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, here's a 12-minute youtube clip:
- Before it began to go dry in the late 1800s, Tulare Lake was the largest freshwater body west of the Mississippi River. It was shallow, no more than 50 feet deep, but during wet years stretched 800 square miles or more. Lake Tahoe, by contrast, is about 191 square miles, though it's much deeper.
- For thousands of years, from the Paleolithic onward, Tulare Lake was a uniquely rich area, which supported perhaps the largest population of Native Americans north of present-day Mexico.
- In the second half of the 19th Century, Tulare Lake was dried up by diverting its tributary rivers for agricultural irrigation and municipal water uses. In modern times, it is usually a dry lake with residual wetlands and marshes. The lake reappears during unusually high levels of rainfall or snow melt: 1942, 1969, 1983, 1997, 1998, and 2023.
One of two remaining historical photos of the lake (from 1880) before it began shrinking:
If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, here's a 12-minute youtube clip:
berkshireskier
Member
68" of new snow at Jackson Hole at the top of the mountain, so far in the first week of March. 17" in the past 24 hours.
That run of snow at Jackson started with 20 inches the last 3 days of February, very impressive. Today is the last forecast of new snow for awhile and highs will be 31F by this weekend.
jasoncapecod
Well-known member
major warm up is in the cards
EMSC
Well-known member
Never been to that part of FL. You could draw a line from Clearwater Beach to Orlando to Daytona Beach and outside of driving I95 have always spent my time south of that.
That was pretty much my experience, with the drives in and out on I-75. But we spent some time on the Gulf Coast on the final drive back to SoCal in July 2021. I do know the Gulf Coast is very exposed to occasional vicious winter weather from Canada, the most extreme of anyplace in the world with that overall climatology. EMSC's line is not a bad rule of thumb northern boundary for overall balmy winters. However you have to be as far south as Naples to Palm Beach to be classified as tropical by Koppen.
jasoncapecod
Well-known member
My sister lives in Jacksonville. It regularly dips into the 20’s of the course of the winter.
EMSC
Well-known member
Not that I'll be skiing the dwindling number of runs of heavy slop, but A-Basin just extended the season to June 16th. Based on what I see on the cams I'd bet that will be it for them. Still a decent base depth for this time of year, but melting fast now with summer temps most of the time for the past week or so.
I believe they will be closed all of ~2 weeks before opening for Summer operations (ropes course, MTB, via ferrata, etc...). Also has to be one of the shortest summer ops seasons in the ski biz (open last weekend in June through ~Sept for summer ops).
I believe they will be closed all of ~2 weeks before opening for Summer operations (ropes course, MTB, via ferrata, etc...). Also has to be one of the shortest summer ops seasons in the ski biz (open last weekend in June through ~Sept for summer ops).
That is routinely Mammoth's summer season. Gondola maintenance is about 3 weeks starting after Memorial Day. When it reopens mid to late June is when upper mountain summer biking and scenic rides can start.
EMSC
Well-known member
Looks like extended summer temps finally coming to an end in Colo. Cooling off late tomorrow (for the front range) with mtn snow and more importantly for now, snowmaking temps in the forecast for most of the next week+ with additional snow likely early next week too. So I'd expect to see ABasin open probably for this weekend at latest and possibly/probably others of the early season players as well (Keystone?, Copper for racer chasers? Copper is already grooming out some snowmaking piles).
Several days ago Al from Abasin posted that he thought they were at about 50% of opening day snowmaking complete. Been quite warm since then, but probably 24-36 hours of snowmaking might be enough for them to pull the trigger for the season.
Wolf Creek now looks quite thin and a bit sketchy with lots of bare areas mixed in, though somehow still claiming 320 acres open. Looks absolutely empty skiers wise. No idea why they didn't decide weekends only till, say, mid-Nov. Though they should start getting snow maybe tonight again.
Several days ago Al from Abasin posted that he thought they were at about 50% of opening day snowmaking complete. Been quite warm since then, but probably 24-36 hours of snowmaking might be enough for them to pull the trigger for the season.
Wolf Creek now looks quite thin and a bit sketchy with lots of bare areas mixed in, though somehow still claiming 320 acres open. Looks absolutely empty skiers wise. No idea why they didn't decide weekends only till, say, mid-Nov. Though they should start getting snow maybe tonight again.
