Tioga Pass in Yosemite CLOSED Yesterday Due to Snow

9,943-foot Tioga Pass in Yosemite, California closed yesterday due to snow.  That’s right, enough snow fell on Tioga Pass to close it, in July.

SR120W Tioga Pass is NOW CLOSED From 4 miles west of Jct 395 to the Yosemite Nat’l Park Entrance Gate, Due to Snow.

— Caltrans District 9 (@Caltrans9) July 9, 2015

We can’t remember a time when Tioga Pass has been closed by snow in July.  Pretty cool.  Caltrans was able to reopen Tioga Pass in both directions about 3 hours after closing it.

California has be receiving a lot of monsoonal moisture from the tropical hurricanes in Mexico this summer that are themselves due to above average temperatures in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.  This has resulted in copious thunderstorms in the Sierra Nevada mountains since May.  These storm haven’t dropped drought changing amounts of rain, but every little bit helps.

Yesterday, Tahoe saw 1″ diameter hail.