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As some of you may have heard, California is currently having an abnormally mild winter.  There hasn't been any precipitation in central California in about a month.  This lack of storms, coupled with abnormally warm temperatures (LA has been in the 80's, its been in the 70's in the Central Valley), has resulted in the melting of what little snow pack we had already accumulated.  Yesterday I decided to go for a drive up in the mountains to see how bad it really is.  The following pictures are taken on Beasore Rd at elevations between 7000 and 8000 ft.  Normally by this time of year there would be 4-8 feet of snow.


This meadow is just shy of 8000 ft elevation.  The deepest snow I encountered in it was probably ~ 4 inches deep.



For some reason there seemed to be more snow on the road than anywhere else...






Almost no snow on the distant mountains.



I stole the following images from Yosemite National Park's facebook.  These are taken ~50 miles north of my excursion.


Elevations in this photo range from ~8000-12,000 ft.


This photo is from Evelyn Lake, Yosemite National Park, at an elevation of 10,300 feet.  Note lack of snow.  This area would probably usually have 10-12 ft of snow right now.

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So what does this mean for you (and the rest of the country, and ultimately the rest of the world)?

The Central Valley of California grows about 8% of the world food supply.  During normal snow years the Sierra Nevada accumulate large volumes of snow, which then slowly melts off through summer and fall, providing water for irrigation during the dry months.  With a weak snow pack and poor precipitation in the Valley it will likely be difficult for farmers to irrigate their crops.  This potential drought will likely result in a decrease in crop productivity, a drop in yield, and as such a rise in food prices.

Farmers have an old saying, 'pray for rain.'  In this case they aught to be praying for a blizzard!

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I sure hope it doesn't get as bad for you guys as it did for Texas. The multi-year drought really peaked last year. They do less produce farming in Texas than ya'll do. Most of what they grow is "commodities" type crops (bean, wheat, oats, etc as compared to Cali's berries, lettuce, broccoli, etc). Last year most farmers just let their crops burn rather than pay the cost of irrigation. Even livestock took a nice hit (an you know Texas has more than 1/2 of tUSA's cattle herd.

Of course wasn't 2011 one of the wettest years you guys had??? It was for the Central Coast. If so, your reservoirs should last well into next year.

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Originally Posted by Mark Simmons:
I sure hope it doesn't get as bad for you guys as it did for Texas. The multi-year drought really peaked last year. They do less produce farming in Texas than ya'll do. Most of what they grow is "commodities" type crops (bean, wheat, oats, etc as compared to Cali's berries, lettuce, broccoli, etc). Last year most farmers just let their crops burn rather than pay the cost of irrigation. Even livestock took a nice hit (an you know Texas has more than 1/2 of tUSA's cattle herd.

Of course wasn't 2011 one of the wettest years you guys had??? It was for the Central Coast. If so, your reservoirs should last well into next year.

Yeah, its strange.  Last year you couldn't even get up to this elevation until July due to the massive snow pack we had.  Now this...

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It finally started raining on Friday.  Its been over a month without precipitation.  Here is a bit of good news!

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I guess the jet stream has changed again.  FWIW, you still have far more snow than we've had in a decade.  And the view is gorgeous!  =)

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Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
I guess the jet stream has changed again.  FWIW, you still have far more snow than we've had in a decade.  And the view is gorgeous!  =)

Our water cycle is a bit different over here than in the South.  The Valley tends to receive decent precipitation during winter and spring, however it is usually hot (100-115ºF) and bone dry from May through mid-October (hence why there are few if any wild tries in the valley, during summer its all dead grass and irrigated farm land from the Coast Range to the base of the Sierra Nevada).  We don't get those big summer thunderstorms like you do (but to be positive, we don't have hurricanes and tornadoes are rare).  The normally monstrous snow pack we accumulate in the mountains is the key to being able to farm the southern half of the Valley during the dry months.  Without snow the fields of the Bread Basket of the World go fallow.

As for the views, while those are good, they ain't nothin compared to many of the places in the Sierra Nevada.  I have a standing offer to play tour guide to anyone here that wants to make the journey out to California during summer!

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It'd be fun to visit!  But I'm financially strpped at the moment.  

Btw...its January...and the high today was around 70F.  We're already having tornado weather here.  But we usually ont get tornadoes here until March or April.  This just aint right.

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Still got no snow then? Seems to be the opposite over here, have seen reports that this year will be the best year for skiing in a generation:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/snowandski/9006670/Skiing-Is-this-the-best-ski-season-ever.html