Last week, Lee Vining Creek peaked on Thursday night, June 23, at approximately 536 cubic feet per second (cfs), according to preliminary data from the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP). Southern California Edison is releasing additional water from Saddlebag Lake Reservoir and almost the  entire natural flow from Tioga Lake Reservoir, which resulted in a very high peak flow on Lee Vining Creek. This peak flow was about the same as last year’s average daily peak flow, which had only been exceeded (more…)

April in the Mono Basin was near-average, but slightly on the cool, dry, and windy side when compared to recent years. Although the high temperature on April 1st was 72 degrees F, the last two weeks struggled to get out of the 50s. It was our windiest April since 2004, with an average wind speed of 4.9 mph in Lee Vining. The 58 mph high-wind-gusts this April and last April were not out of the ordinary. You can see our April weather log here.

This year April brought wind, cool temperatures, and average precipitation to the Mono Basin. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

Lee Vining precipitation in April was (more…)

Every April, after the April 1st snow surveys are in, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) issues a preliminary April 1st runoff forecast, and then a final forecast update in May. The April 1st forecast for the Mono Basin for the April 1 2011–March 31 2012 runoff year is 147% of average!

We always get asked why the runoff forecast is different than the snowpack—if the snowpack is 169% of average, shouldn’t the runoff be the same? The simple answer is that the snowpack is extremely variable, and some of it soaks into the ground or sublimates into the air—so not all the water in the snow becomes runoff.

Since the State Water Board decision in 1994, only two years have had more than 147% runoff (more…)

The April 1st snow surveys in the Mono Basin found 169% of average snowpack in the headwaters of Rush Creek and Lee Vining creeks. Snow water content ranged from 133% at Gem Lake to 187% at Ellery Lake.

A typical spring day in the Mono Basin: snowstorms edging their way over the Sierra Nevada. Photo by Arya Degenhardt.

The March storms were relentless, with only nine days during the month when the Gem Pass snow pillow did not record an increase in snow water content. In Lee Vining it was our wettest March since 1995, with over 4 inches of precipitation. It was our snowiest March on record (since 1989), barely beating March 2001′s 43 inches of snowfall by 0.8 inches.

We are still waiting for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power to release the preliminary April runoff forecast (to be finalized in May), but based on the snowpack, it might be a similar runoff year to 1998, 2005, and 2006—somewhere in the 140–150% of average range. We’ll post an update when we have more information—but Mono Lake will definitely rise a lot this year!

Mono Basin March 1st snow surveys aren’t all in yet, but so far surveys in the Lee Vining Creek drainage have been completed. In percent of the April 1st average snow water content, Tioga Pass was 105%, Saddlebag Lake was 110%, and Ellery Lake was 128%. This averages 114% for April 1st and 134% for March 1st.  Statewide, so far the totals are 109% for April 1st and 124% for March 1st, and ranging from 66% for the Scott River to 225% for the Tule River (March 1). The basins adjacent to Mono (more…)

The Mono Basin’s wet weather suddenly ended January 3rd, and aside from 0.16 inches of precipitation on January 30th, there was no measurable precipitation until February 16th! That is 27 dry days in a row, then one day of precipitation, followed by another 16 dry days! Total January precipitation in Lee Vining added up to (more…)

Thanks to those avid snow-seekers known as “skiers,” you can see December’s huge snowstorms blanket the western United States all over again. The folks at Skiing Interactive Daily have compiled time-lapse satellite imagery from December 12–23, which shows the impressive buildup of snow at several of the West’s major ski areas.

Click here, wait for the page to load (be patient), press “play,” and be amazed.

The action for Mono Lake began on December 15 … pay close attention to the “Mammoth” tab as the snowpack calculation skyrockets. And remember, what happened at Mammoth happened at Mono Lake too! As we near the end of a dry January, it’s fun to look back at the big storms … and pray for more to come.

Late afternoon sunshine lights up Mono Lake's islands. Photo by Elin Ljung.

It was a remarkable December for precipitation, as well as snowfall at the higher elevations. Following a rainy October and a snowy November, December 2010 brought most areas of the Mono Basin and Owens Valley very close to seasonal average precipitation and snowfall—with the majority of the wet season left to go! (more…)

From Friday through Monday a very wet storm dropped copious amounts of rain and snow, totaling 5.66 inches of water content (in about 20 inches of snow) in Lee Vining, 2.93 inches at Cain Ranch, and 11.5 inches at Gem Pass. Snow levels were between 6,000 and 8,000 feet Friday through Sunday. Since Sunday night when the cold front (more…)

Hot … er, cold … on the heels of the rainiest October on record, at our Lee Vining weather station, the Mono Lake Committee measured 21.3 inches of snow—the most snowfall in November since 1994! Almost all the snow fell between the Saturday before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving. This resulted in lots of traffic accidents due to the slippery roads combined with holiday traffic.

The total precipitation for October and November was (more…)