Whitney Fish Hatchery Destroyed
More storm news from the Eastern Sierra. Looks like last year’s fires were a factor in this. The mudslide occurred over fire-blackened land.
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March, April, May: ‘Driest Ever’
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that March, April, and May 2008 were the driest winter months on record for California and the Sierra Nevada mountains.
I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising, given that (A) these three months traditionally see heavy snowfall in the Sierra and (B) this year these same months were essentially bone dry (except for the Memorial Day storm). Still, it is a strange and alarming ending for a winter that featured both unusually intense storms and an unusual absence of storms.
California depends on the Sierra snowpack for much of its water needs, prompting Sacramento to declare a statewide drought. Said the Governator: “This drought is an urgent reminder of the immediate need to upgrade California’s water infrastructure. There is no more time to waste because nothing is more vital to protect our economy, our environment and our quality-of-life.”
For those who follow the ever-developing story of Global Climate Change, the threat of reduced Sierra and Rocky Mountain snowpacks (and thus available water in the Western U.S.) is an area of great concern in this country. For more info on the subject, Google “Lake Powell Water Shortage.”
I should point out that Colorado is enjoying a banner year (the bastards are still skiing backcountry powder, as far as I’ve heard). The actual impact of a warmer Earth is of course unknowable, which is part of what makes the problem so difficult to deal with. That said, scarcity of water may prove to be a sleeper of an issue with a big bite.
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Rain, Hail, Lighting, Snow…Tornado?
I was walking out my door today around 5 p.m. on the way to the grocery when the sudden rumble of thunder stopped me.
Hmm…I guess those black clouds on the horizon weren’t fog, after all. SoCal weather took a turn for the bizarre today, with the full gamut of weather phenomena.
Here at the SierraDescents command center, we got heavy rain and lightning.
For those unfamiliar with Southern California, rain this time of year is exceedingly rare, and thunder is rare year-round (more…)
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See Kili Before the Snow Is Gone
My brother and I talked about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro years ago; for us, it was one of those exotic, chance-of-a-lifetime dreams. Sadly, the trip fell through, and we never went.
While not a technical climb, 19,340′ Kilimanjaro has long been a coveted summit. The view atop the summit at dawn is legendary. And the climb up, starting in African rain forest, and ultimately reaching the continent’s highest (and glaciated) point, is surely one of the most diverse imaginable.
Kili’s popularity has been growing in recent years, fueled by a “see the snow before it’s gone” pitch. Most scientists believe Kilimanjaro’s glaciers will vanish sometime this century. That has translated into something of a tourist boom. I don’t know if my brother and I will ever make it to Kilimanjaro, but if we do, I doubt we’ll be carrying skis.
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Greenland Uncertainty
The New York Times has a front-page article today on the melting of Greenland’s ice. Greenland occupies a special place in the global warming watch, as it contains an extraordinary amount of frozen water (a Gulf of Mexico’s worth, according to the article).
Should all of this ice melt abruptly, it would indeed make for a Hollywood-style doomsday scenario (at least for human civilization).
Until recently, that scenario has always been considered far-fetched. But much has changed in the last five years, especially our awareness (if not understanding) of feedback loops within the Earth’s climate.
Some scientists believed immense ice flows like Greenland had at most limited vulnerability to melt. Greenland is so big, it makes its own climate—feeding its own growth, so to say. Yes, warmer temperatures mean more melting, but in the case of Greenland, the melt would be concentrated at the edges, leaving the bulk of the ice unaffected. In the past five years, however, the flaw in this way of thinking has become quite apparent: (more…)
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September Snow?
By any standard, we’ve just seen a very unusual weather event: a ‘winter’ storm in SoCal—in the month of September.
NWS was forecasting accumulations of 18 inches in the Southern Sierra, with higher totals possible. It may be an exaggeration to say we saw as much rain overnight here in L.A. as all of last season, but it sure felt like it.
Is this a harbinger of a big Sierra winter? It’s not too late to pick up a Mt. Baldy season pass…
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Global Dimming
PBS’ Nova is running a new episode on a phenomenon they’ve dubbed, “Global Dimming”—the reduction of the sun’s intensity due to atmospheric pollution. On its surface this might seem like a perfectly obvious consequence of pollution, but, as the documentary demonstrates, scientists are making astonishing discoveries about its true scope.
Via a clever experiment in the Maldives, researchers were able to measure the actual reduction caused by human pollution. They expected to find something on the order of a half of one percent. Instead, they discovered man-made pollution caused as much as a ten percent reduction in the intensity of the sun’s rays reaching the ground.
How, you ask? First, plainly, simply putting particulates in the air blocks sunlight. But—and here’s the tricky part—pollution particulates tend to be much smaller than ordinary dust in our atmosphere. Consequently, they create clouds (as water vapor condenses around the particulates) that are vastly more reflective than ordinary clouds. These pollution-enhanced clouds have a profoundly greater cooling effect on the Earth below.
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GW Alert: Russia Plants Flag Under North Pole
Here’s a chiller of a story for you from the Los Angeles Times: Russian submarines planted the national flag on the seabed two miles beneath the North Pole, claming the land as an extension of Russia’s continental shelf—and therefore within their domain for oil and gas exploration.
It turns out that Global Warming, which is melting the ice, made the move possible. And rich petroleum reserves are believed to be located in the region. More oil to burn means more warming means less ice means more access to oil, and so on, leading credence to those who believe we humans are going to burn every last drop of oil on the planet and damn the consequences.
If that’s not enough good news for you, the article goes on to note that huge sections of the Russian north’s permafrost are now melting. As these vast deposits of biomass thaw, they degrade, releasing huge quantities of methane, which is according to the article 23 times more potent a greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide.
A sudden, massive release of Methane has been on the doomsday scenerio books for a while, even if you’ve never heard about it before. I read a Sci-Fi book over ten years ago about such a scenario, which led to a sudden season of killer hurricanes that nearly destroying human civilization (“Mother of Storms” by John Barnes). This is yet another of those ‘tipping point’ threats that could lead to a much warmer future than expected. Well, we’ll know soon enough, won’t we?
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The Big Thaw
National Geographic Magazine has posted their latest cover story online: The Big Thaw, on the Earth’s vanishing icepack. That the world’s glaciers and permanent snowfields are melting is certainly not news. What is surprising is how fast the ice is melting.
The loss of polar ice and glaciation has been predicted for years. But scientists are now finding themselves astonished by the rate of melt. Says Eric Rignot, at NASA’s JPL, “We see things today that five years ago would have seemed completely impossible, extravagant, exaggerated.”
National Geographic’s article offers an alarming explanation of the discrepancy (hint: are you familiar with the ‘Tipping Point’ theory?). If you are interested in that vast, uncontrolled human experiment known as Global Warming, I recommend reading the entire article.
It is a preview, I fear, of many more surprises to come.
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El Nino or El Nada?
Some of you may recall this was supposed to be an El Nino Winter, with above-average precipitation for the western United States.
What happened? This winter can be charitably described as a cruel hoax: currently, Los Angeles is (arguably) experiencing its driest winter on record.
To the north, even Mt. Shasta (!) is experiencing a dry winter—though dry for them is still looking mighty good compared to what’s happening down south.
Before we abandon all hope, yes, there is snow in the High Sierra. Look for touring opportunities in the Mammoth Lakes region, north through Yosemite/Tioga Pass, to the Sawtooths and Twin Lakes. No guarentees, however, as to whether any of it will be skiable through May, so plan your road trips early.
On the subject of weather, here’s an interesting LA Times article on a ‘rebel’ climatologist who correctly predicted we’d see record drought, rather than the wet season expected by everyone else. Interesting, no?
Williamson - Bairs Creek Cirque
Brooks Ultralight Tarp
Shasta - Hotlum-Wintun Ridge
Bloody Mtn - Bloody Couloir
Langley - Northeast Couloir
