Some of the greatest snowfall amounts since the big winter of 1969 has buried the Town of Mammoth Lakes.  There are walls of snow some 15 to 20 feet high in some places and snow up to the 2nd story is common place throughout the Mammoth Slope Subdivision. For you locals out there….get lots of pictures, as this is possibly a 1 in 50 year event! In that this is only late January, odds are that a lot more snow is coming.

Looking at the week two charts of both the ECMFW and GFS, the two global models show both the -WPO and -EPO teleconnection strengthening, which is a strong indicator of blocking over Alaska and the Bering Sea. This is the pattern we had in both December and Early January when we had Atmospheric Rivers hit both Central and Northern CA. So far this has been the winter of AK blocking that began last October if you remember.

What you can do to protect your property:

Take preparations over the next week by creating snow storage:

  1. Cover windows buried in snow
  2. Get roofs shoveled and remove ice dams.
  3. Protect your Propane Tanks from Ice and snow, especially around the gas lines. Big winters are notorious for creating broken gas lines around tanks which can create leaks and possible fires and explosions.

Get snow trucked out of possible.

9:20AM Update:

The New Deterministic GFS just finished Running… It is more similar to the Canadian…

The Location of the Block is the key teleconnection between the -EO and -WPO sector. It sets up the AR over time back into Central and Northern CA. In fact according to the GFS, there is a complete westerly break through into the Golden State by the 6th of February.

Based upon what we have now and what the future may bring, I think that it is entirely possible that this winter will break snowfall records of the winter of 1969 by the end of February….

 

Dr Howard and the Dweebs……………………..:-)