[pct-l] Snow at Donner Pass

[weathercarrot at hotmail.com (The Weathercarrot)]

<<  An historical snow level chart displayed inside the bathrooms shows that 
the latest recorded date for zero snow at the pass is June 15th.  Don't be 
surprised if that date is surpassed this year. <snip> The weatherman claims 
this should be the last for the season.  We shall see. >>

I haven't seen the Donner Summit data (besides yearly snowfall totals), but 
on July 6th, 1998, there were patches of snow in the woods behind the 
restrooms (as well as some isolated shaded patches in nearby Soda Springs), 
and within about a half a mile north on the trail (in the direction of 
Castle Pass), it became almost entirely snowbound, and about 2-4 feet on the 
ground by 1.5 miles from the rest area. From the southern Sierra to Lassen, 
1998 experienced a highly unusual (perhaps never-before recorded) stretch of 
13 days in a row of rain and snow (depending on elevation) from June 1st to 
June 13th or 14th. Snowpack was increased during that period with very 
little melting. Many areas had their wettest June on record to add to an 
already very high precipitation season. One unconfirmed report from the town 
of North Fork (in the foothills) recorded a trace snowfall as low as 2,600 
feet around the first of June. After the 14th, the pattern ended abruptly, 
and it was sunny the rest of the month. But the snow stayed a very long time 
after that, perhaps outlasting the '83 longevity in some areas. The road 
through Lassen Park around the 18th of July was a canyon of 5-20 foot walls 
of snow on either side.

So my point is that the wet conditions we've had this month are not as 
anomalous as they seem, and we might be hard-pressed to surpass the dates of 
zero snow cover achieved in '98, unless we have another rare, persistently 
snowy June.

wc