Industry News
UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab (CSSL) has confirmed that last week’s snowfall on May 5 was indeed the largest snowfall of the entire season. The storm dropped 26.4 inches (67 centimeters) of snow on May 5, beating the snowfall from March 3 by a cool 2.6 inches (6.5 centimeters). The weekend spring storm brought heavy precipitation to Northern California and forced the closure of several highways, including Interstate 80 over the Donner Pass. After a slow start to the season, the 23/24 season is now tracking above the median for the 40-year hydrological years from 1991 to 2020.
The UC Berkeley CSSL is located at Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada that specializes in snow physics, snow hydrology, meteorology, climatology, and instrument design. Built in 1946 by the (then) U.S. Weather Bureau and Army Corps of Engineers, it is now managed by UC Berkeley.
May snow storms are not that rare, however the sizeable amount of almost 2 feet of snowfall in just 24 hours in a May snow storm is incredibly rare. The National Weather Service in Reno issued a rare May Winter Storm Warning. “For a system to dump 1 to 2 feet of snow in early May is quite remarkable,” said meteorologist Scott Rowe from the National Weather Service. The storm, which swept in from Alaksa, brought down a mas of cold air, creating a lot of snow at altitude as the air condensed, according to Rowe.
