Pacific states '22 season looks promising

Unlike the last two winters, we're having a doozy of a rain and snow season so far. The Cascades and Sierra Nevada are getting lots of snow and we're only a month into the historical peak storm cycle.

My caution is to note the many, many years when it snowed early then simply stopped, so no spiking the ball until we're sniffing the endzone (seasonal sportsball reference). California's snowpack is 57% of the average season total and 150% of the average for the date. Follow the CA snowpack here.

Progress.

Last year was my first with zero backpacking trips, since I was a kid. Here's hoping for better conditions ahead.

Cheers,

Absolutely agree. Fingers crossed!

Hopefully it gets into the soil system. A friend down in CA heard a hydrologist for the Sierra talking about a worrying trend: If the year’s rain/snow comes in one sudden spurt, dry soils are overwhelmed and can’t take it into the water table….further drying soils, round and round. So while the inches may look high, it may not be getting into the system…

I hope that's not the case as that seems to fit what happens up here in WA as well. We've been getting hammered with snow in the mountains (all of our major mountain passes have been closed for a few days now, and while I've only lived here for six years, there hasn't been such an extended pass closure, especially of all passes at once, since I've lived here). I'm really hoping that our bad fire seasons are diminished this year.

Hike early. It will be a brief California season before the fires return.

Sorry if I jinxed us with my first post!

"California Braces for Another Cataclysmic Wildfire Season" says Scientific American, unfortunately.

"More than 93 percent of the state is in severe or extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. And a March 1 reading of the state's snowpack found it way below normal — just 63 percent of the average for that date.

That's not all. California hillsides are turning brown with dead and dying grass — potential kindling for the next inferno.

Taken together, it's a recipe for disaster."

Full story here.